By Rebecca Henely
St. Michael’s Cemetery, which has multiple memorials to those who were killed trying to save others on Sept. 11, 2011, will be dedicating a monument to all firefighters who died on that tragic day this year.
“The first responders who responded marching into collapsing buildings knowing they were walking to their deaths demand our respect, thanks, awe, devotion and to never be forgotten,” Ed Horn, spokesman for the cemetery, said in a statement.
The cemetery, located at 72-02 Astoria Blvd. in East Elmhurst, has installed memorials to those who died on 9/11 since 2004. These memorials include one for the 76 firefighters who died from Queens or worked in the borough, the 23 police officers from across the city who died and all the 37 Port Authority of New York and New Jersey workers who died.
The new memorial will be for all 343 firefighters who perished on 9/11. The ceremony, which is open to the public, will take place Saturday, Sept. 24, at 2 p.m.
St. Michael’s started installing the memorials after the parents of Christopher Santora, a firefighter from Long Island City who had been killed that day, approached Horn with a request to remember the 76 firefighters from Queens who had died. The Santoras and the cemetery have continued to create memorials and held a fund-raiser earlier this year to raise the $50,000 needed to create the one that will be unveiled later this month.
Reach reporter Rebecca Henely by e-mail at rhenely@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
