News release from the Fort Wayne Fire Department:
Fort Wayne Newspapers Three Rivers Festival and the Fort Wayne Fire Department Welcomes “The Remembrance Project” – FDNY Rescue #5
(July 12, 2013) – Partnering with the Three Rivers Festival, the Fort Wayne Fire Department (FWFD) is honored to welcome Remembrance Rescue Project – “The Project” – to Fort Wayne during the Fort Wayne Newspapers Three Rivers Festival. The Project, aka FDNY Rescue 4 & 5, are mobile memorials designed to educate, honor and remember the events of 9/11 and the lives lost that fateful day.
This not-for-profit, strictly volunteer organization comprised mostly of firefighters from across the country, utilize the refurbished FDNY’s former Rescue 4 and 5 as educational tools designed for society, especially youngsters, who were too young to actually understand the events of September 11th and what that day means to all of us.
The Project is 100% operated by firefighters and is assisted by host fire departments throughout the country to coordinate educational sessions with the Rescues for local schools, community events and memorials. Rescue 4 and Rescue 5 are currently the only operational fire apparatus from 9/11 outside New York City.
The Project is not an FDNY operation, but its Rescues will always represent not only their sacrifice, but serve as key artifacts to understanding and remembering the largest tragedy in modern American history.
In July of 2011, a group of firefighters purchased former Rescue 3 from the City of New York, when it was going to be scrapped, for the purpose of creating the REMEMBRANCE RESCUE PROJECT. Unfortunately, Rescue 3 had an immediate catastrophic engine failure.
The Project contacted the scrap yard where Rescue 4 had been sent and was able to swap rigs prior to its destruction. However, Rescue 4 had no cab doors, so the available parts were taken off Rescue 3 before its destruction and replaced on Rescue 4.
Rescue 4’s restoration work was completed by a group of amazing volunteers in September of 2011. In the Projects’ first 12 months, the Rescue was a part of a variety of community events and memorials with estimated attendances totalling 900,000 people. The Project continuously travels throughout the United States and currently has requests from host departments across the country.
In December of 2011, the Project acquired the last of the Rescue trucks from 9/11, Rescue 5. Rescue 5 was brought to the Project’s Chicago facility, where its restoration was completed in April of 2012.
Rescue 5 is currently operated out of the Project’s Chicago facility and travel throughout the Eastern states, while Rescue 4 operates out of Colorado and continues the Project’s mission throughout the Western states.
Rescue 5 will arrive tonight in Fort Wayne for the first weekend of the Three Rivers Festival. It will be included in the Fort Wayne Newspapers Three Rivers Festival Lutheran Health Network parade and on public display at just north of Headwaters Park Pavilion during the weekend festivities on Saturday, July 13 (11-7 p.m.) and Sunday, July 14th (11-5:30 p.m.)
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