A Historical Remembrance

Winter Garden’s Sept. 11 Memorial

by Karen V. Contino


In a small park behind Winter Garden Fire Rescue Department headquarters, between East Cypress and Main streets, rests a marked and rusted, 700-pound I-beam fixed to a smooth granite base. The beam, recovered from the World Trade Center wreckage, is the prominent centerpiece of the city of Winter Garden’s Sept. 11 Memorial, dedicated to the first responders who perished in the terrorist attacks just 15 years ago.

“The memorial that we were able to build provides a local remembrance of 9/11 for our residents, visitors and many others who have relocated to Winter Garden from New York City,” said Winter Garden Fire Rescue Department Fire Chief Matt McGrew.

In 2010, Winter Garden Fire Rescue Department’s former fire chief, John Williamson, requested the piece of history from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. His request was approved a year later, on the condition that he arrange for its pickup and transport across the U.S., a roughly 1,130-mile journey one way.

Williamson immediately put out a request among Winter Garden’s first responders to see if anyone could make the lengthy trip. James Brown of Winter Garden leapt at the chance.

“Chief Williamson reached out and asked if anyone wanted to help,” said Brown, a former NYC firefighter and NYC police officer. “I knew him from our homeowners association meetings at fire headquarters. He put a call out. He threw it out there and said that somehow it had to be picked up that week. It was around the 10th anniversary. I felt compelled to volunteer. The steel — I wanted to follow it.”

“The city of Winter Garden was honored to have three of our own — Winter Garden resident Jimmy Brown, Winter Garden Fire Rescue Department Battalion Chief Brian Sanders, and Winter Garden Police Department Detective James Cox — as three of the four-member team that traveled to NYC,” McGraw said. “The fourth member was Belle Isle Police Department Officer Tren Trendafilov.”

“We had a great group of guys who came,” Cox said. “It was a really wonderful and extremely rewarding experience.”

090116feature01Winter Garden first responders participate in the unveiling of the city’s Sept. 11 Memorial last year. (Photo courtesy Amy Martello)

The Attacks

The morning of September 11, 2001, Brooklyn-born Brown was at Engine 10/Ladder 10, located just across the street from the WTC, when he heard the first airplane approaching through the fire station’s open doors.

“I was able to tell that it was very large, very close, very low and traveling very fast,” Brown told the Southwest Orlando Bulletin in 2012. “I actually heard the turbines accelerating as it neared.”

Within seconds, he experienced American Airlines Flight No. 11 hitting the WTC’s North Tower at 466 miles per hour.

“I could feel the force of the impact resonate through my body,” he said. “It was like a concussion grenade going off right in front of me. I watched the plate-glass windows of [the station] vibrate to the point that I was amazed they didn’t shatter. The explosion that accompanied the impact was unbelievable. It was louder than any I have ever heard. The fireball was hot enough for me to actually feel the heat all the way down at street level.”

Engine 10/Ladder 10 were the first New York City Fire Department units to respond to the attacks. Brown and his fellow first responders were met with the scene left behind after ignited jet fuel tunneled down elevator shafts and exploded into the main lobby and several lower floors.

They had made it to the North Tower’s 23rd floor when the South Tower fell. Brown barely made it out before the North Tower collapsed 29 minutes later.

“It sounded like a freight train starting out slowly from far and getting faster as it neared,” he said. “I could hear the ‘bang, bang, bang’ of the floors falling on each other and then I felt this huge gust of wind as all the air got pushed out of the building.”

Today, Brown works at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Wounded Officers Initiative, an organization founded in 2014 by three active Central Florida law enforcement officers to bridge the gap in benefits and recognition provided to law enforcement officers catastrophically injured in the line of duty, both physically and mentally.

“Having someone within our city who was working as a firefighter at the World Trade Center on 9/11 creates a palpable connection for our city,” McGrew said.

New York State of Mind

“Out of the blue, he asked me if I’d be interested [to go to New York],” Trendafilov said of Brown asking him to join the trip to pick up the beam. “We had worked together at the sheriff’s office and were friends for a while. We had talked about his 9/11 story. When this came up, when he called me and asked me, it was a no-brainer for me. I was in. I don’t even think he got it all out before I said, ‘Yes.’”

Trendafilov admits 9/11 had an indelible impact on him as well.

“Everybody has their own personal feelings about that day,” he said. “I’m the same way; it touched me deeply.

“Sept. 11 played a part in why I did make the career change I made instead of continuing on with what I was doing,” Trendafilov added about his decision to join local law enforcement.

The group left Winter Garden before sunrise and took turns driving until they arrived in Brooklyn, New York, on a foggy, rainy Monday night. Brown had made arrangements for them to stay at Engine 201, from where he had retired. He enjoyed “showing the guys New York a little bit,” including dinner at a favorite Italian restaurant and a New York bagel breakfast.

“We had always argued about bagels,” Trendafilov said about Brown. “We’d start talking about [which] bagels were the best and arguments would ensue. Well, I had a New York bagel.”

“He’s a convert now,” Brown joked.

The next day, the group traveled to a Long Island, New York, warehouse to pick up the 4-foot section of steel I-beam that fit perfectly into the exterior cargo area of Cox’s metallic blue 2002 Ford Explorer Sport Trac.

“I measured the bed, and it was just long enough,” Cox said. “I was just able to close the gate.”

Cox offered his vehicle for the trip, which was a volunteer effort taken with the group’s personal time off.

“I still have the truck,” Cox said. “I bought the vehicle in the fall, a week after the 9/11 tragedy. I decided that was one of the most American things you can do — buy a brand-new vehicle. The country was reeling, and I bought an American truck, and it’s still going strong.

“I drove it north to visit family right after I bought it. After something like [9/11] happens, you want to be with family. As I drove, one thing that I felt was odd was there was no air traffic. Then I saw Air Force One land. I was in the DC area, and Air Force One came over the beltway on the final approach. It was daylight, and you could clearly see it was Air Force One. It was awe-inspiring. It was one of those moments where the timing was just incredible.”

Cox credits that experience as a change agent in his career.

“I felt I got punched in the gut,” he said. “After that I planned a complete career switch. It changed my life, and it’s why I became an officer to be honest with you. I went home that night and told my family. I needed to change my life, and I’m passionate about it.”

After they picked up the I-beam, the group stopped at Engine 10/Ladder 10 for a few moments of reflection before returning to Winter Garden.

“We went up on the roof and had an overview of the site,” Brown said. “The museum wasn’t done yet, but we saw tons of flags for each victim.”

“We all decided to go back to Tenhouse,” Trendafilov said. “It was very surreal looking down from the house to where the bank [used to be], seeing the pit and the heavy equipment. It was very moving. Being up there touched me as deeply as it touched me the day it happened. It’s hallowed ground.”

090116feature02Winter Garden resident James Brown, who was part of the first New York City Fire Department units to respond on 9/11, accompanies the 700-pound I-beam of steel from the World Trade Center on its New York to Winter Garden journey.

The Return Home

The next morning, the group carefully draped an American Flag over the I-beam for its police-escorted ride to Winter Garden City Hall.

“It means a lot, it means a whole lot,” Brown told Fox35 of his experience. “It’s a piece of where I almost died that I’m able to take part in helping bring back here to where I live now. It’s a physical, tangible piece of it.”

Brown hopes that the memorial, which was completed last year, will serve as a place he can share his story with his children, as well as a reminder to others to never forget “the most important message” from 9/11.

“I personally will never forget it,” he said. “It was an attack on America. It attacked American society as a whole. We are compartmentalizing each other, but we are all Americans. United we stand, divided we fall. Remember unity.”

As vice president and co-founder of the Wounded Officers Initiative, Brown also hopes local wounded officers can achieve financial security, good mental health, reintroduction to the workforce, and well-deserved recognition.

“They are our homeland warriors who stand in the gap between good and evil every day,” Brown said. “Law enforcement officers are worthy of our respect and honor, because they are willing to lay their lives down for those they do not know so as to keep chaos and anarchy at bay.”💓