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Parma firefighters retain vivid memories of 9/11 recovery effort

PARMA --  The memory of 9/11 still smolders for 12 Parma firefighters.

The group was part of the recovery effort in New York City, four days after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center.

The experience affected each firefighter in different ways and to various degrees. For one, it changed the way he views his job.

“We get so many routine calls,” firefighter Chris Tibbitts said. “Grandma left food on the stove, or somebody was smoking and went to sleep. You used to take those calls for granted.

“But now, you start thinking,” Tibbitts said. “What if this is the one? Before, everything was so innocent.”

The 9/11 attack stirred emotions is some Parma firefighters who helped with the recovery.

“It makes you angry that someone can be that evil,” firefighter Jim Krokey said. “All the good that people do, it doesn’t take much for someone evil to wipe it away.”

Still, the Parma firefighters were impressed at how firefighters, police officers and rescue workers from across the country worked together at ground zero.

“It was unreal the amount of people helping and caring,” Tibbitts said. “It was something I’ll never forget. It was sad but amazing at the same time.”

In addition to Tibbitts and Krokey, the Parma firefighters who went to New York were Scott Bagi, Dwayne Fiker, Chief John French, David Knect, Dave Light, T.J. Martin, Jeff Patterson, Capt. Pete Poznako, Assistant Chief Dennis Ryan and Pat Taylor.

Here is their story, as told by Tibbitts, Krokey, Poznako and Patterson.

The firemen’s way

Within hours of the 9/11 attacks, the Parma Fire Department started calling authorities in New York, asking if the city needed rescue-and-recovery assistance.

The department finally reached someone at Shea Stadium, where the American Red Cross had set up a base, and was encouraged to send help.

Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance » Knowing Our Own Backyard ...

Salt Pan Creek, is a large waterway flowing into Georges River between Lugarno and Alford’s Point. It’s catchment encompasses the local government areas of Bankstown, Canterbury and Hurstville.

Salt Pan Creek was surveyed during Matthew Flinders and George Bass and Captain John Hunter voyages, each who must have thought this inlet was the main Georges River channel, as each drew it in great detail on their cartography.

The creek is of great importance to local aboriginal people, who camped by this natural food supply, with a private aboriginal camp established by Hugh and Ellen Anderson by it’s banks in Ogilvy Street, Peakhurst West, from about 1926 to 1938.

Lower reaches of the waterway are in good condition with high sandstone cliffs and native bushland in areas set aside as Georges River National Park. Profuse native flora, fauna and reptiles continue in these areas. A volcanic crater exists in Evatt Park, Lugarno, the plug having existed until removed by workmen with no knowledge of it’s importance.

Old aerial photographs from 1938 show a pristine creek with no mangroves along banks, reflecting it’s clean condition. The banks now have large stands of these water quality cleansing trees.

In the late 1920s, the state government decided to build the East Hills railway line from Tempe to East Hills via Wolli Creek and Salt Pan Creek. Primative building methods during the Great Depression saw tons of landfill placed in Salt Pan Creek, adjacent to Riverwood, allowing an embankment to be erected for the line, traversing a steel girder bridge. This construction method reduced the creek at this point to half creek width. In following years, creeks to the west became silted as the neck prevented river tide flushing. During the Great Depression, creeks within Canterbury, Bankstown and Hurstville became “Work for the Dole” projects for unemployed men. Creek beds were bricked and cemented into stormwater canals.

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