Comrades mourned

South Shore rescue workers recall shock, devastation

“It will ...stay with us
the rest of our lives”

By DENNIS TATZ
The Patriot Ledger

The first-hand images of Ground Zero following the terrorist attacks in New York City five years ago remain today for James Murphy and others.

Murphy, a major with the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department, was among 75 members of a Federal Emergency Management Agency task force in Massachusetts sent to the World Trade Center to help with rescue efforts the day of the deadly attacks.

“I won’t forget it,” Murphy said. “It will probably stay with us the rest of our lives. The devastation was immense.”

Murphy, 42, of West Barnstable, said he thought about the many firefighters and police officers who responded to two planes crashing into the twin towers and making the ultimate sacrifice of paying with their lives after rushing to the scene.

“This was an attack against the world,” Murphy said. “We didn’t want the terrorists to win by taking over our freedom.”

Stoughton firefighter Gregory Borget and several other South Shore firefighters provided psychological counseling to rescue workers.

“It is hard to describe,” Borget said. “I remember the smell of wet paper and paper falling. There was dust mixed in with it. It was an unreal sight to see all the emergency and civilian vehicles that were just crushed.”

Borget, 41, said he was amazed by the teamwork of rescue workers as they sifted through mounds of debris in the hope of finding survivors.

“Anyone who was there will never forget what they saw,” Borget said. “It’s emotional even to this day.”

Borget said it was unimaginable to learn that station houses of firefighters had been wiped out.

Duxbury Fire Chief Kevin Nord, who was a captain with the Kingston Fire Department at the time, was also part of the psychological counseling team.

“It’s still pretty vivid,” Nord, 45, said. “It was such an unfortunate circumstance. It affected us in so many ways.”

Nord recalled being in a makeshift morgue at Ground Zero as rescue workers brought in the remains of those killed when the towers collapsed.

“They were adamant about recovering everyone’s body,” he said. “Their efforts reinforced the commitment of the fire services and public safety workers to take care of each other.”

Quincy firefighter Christopher Barry, 37, of Hingham was among 75 Quincy firefighters who went to New York in the months following the terrorists attacks to attend funerals of fallen comrades and to offer support to families.

“I still have a difficult time with it,” Barry said. “We were seeing something that had never been seen in my generation. Five years later, I no longer have a suspension of disbelief. I expect that it could happen again. I remain concerned. Are we better prepared?”

Barry said he hoped Americans will not become desensitized and will continue to remember what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, as the war on terrorism continues to be fought. “I find myself thinking about that a lot,” he said.

Barry said he has returned to New York, most recently as June, and gone to Ground Zero. “I’m still in awe when I go there and see the hole in the skyline,” he said. “The area is alive again and people are resuming their lives. It’s great to see.”

Dennis Tatz may be reached at dtatz@ledger.com.

File photo

Joey Rossi, 15, with part of his model of the World Trade Center, made of Legos. The tallest structure in the model is 9 feet high.

ASPIRING ARCHITECT

Model undertaking

Marshfield student re-creates WTC
using Lego bricks

By SUE SCHEIBLE
The Patriot Ledger

MARSHFIELD - Joey Rossi wants to make sure people remember the architectural beauty of the World Trade Center complex.

So the 18-year-old aspiring architect is displaying his latest Lego replica of towers and adjacent buildings at the State House through Friday.

“Not only did the nation lose more than 2,700 people - we also lost these architectural icons,” Rossi said. “I felt something needed to be done to revive the buildings, back into their glory. To see such an architectural achievement - the biggest project since the Pyramids - be destroyed in one day pushed me to try to re-create it.”

Rossi, a senior at Marshfield High School, will mark today’s fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by spending the morning by his expanded exhibit in Doric Hall, answering questions and talking to people about it.

Rossi used more than 200,000 Lego bricks $4,000 worth, which he mostly paid for himself, to re-create the seven buildings in the World Trade Center complex. The project took him more than three years to complete.

Rossi has wanted to be an architect since the third grade and hopes to go to Wentworth Institute of Technology next year to pursue that field of study.

This is the second time Rossi has assembled the exhibit at the State House with the support of Sen. Robert Hedlund, R-Weymouth, and others. The first time, in August 2004, he also met with Gov. Mitt Romney.

Then, after his exhibit was taken down, he continued working and expanded the replica to include the other five buildings that were lost at ground zero.

Rossi spent five hours last Tuesday putting it up with help from his father, Bill, and a friend, Benn Grover. They took the replica to the State House in sections that had already been assembled in the basement of Rossi’s home.

Rossi began the project in May 2002 by rebuilding the North and South twin towers. That part took about 21/2 years.

He spent a lot of time researching the details, such as the sculptures that were in the complex, precisely where the entrances were located, the raised level of the plaza and where plantings were located.

Rossi had never seen the World Trade Center, but he visited ground zero after the attacks with his family, which also includes his mother, Judy, and his sister, Ashley, 12.

Each tower in the replica has 35 floors to represent the 110 floors in the actual buildings. The tallest replica building is 9 feet with the antenna.

“The biggest challenge was getting the buildings to look the way they actually were,” Rossi said. He had to piece three photographs together to figure out what the central plaza area looked like from within it.

The exhibit is always assembled in his basement, where his friends take it for granted. He still hopes to be able to send it out to be displayed in other cities.

“I wanted to send it down to New York but couldn’t find anyone there who was interested,” he said.

Sue Scheible may be reached at sscheible@ledger.com.