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by COLLEEN LONG
NEW ORLEANS -- Firefighters from New York, New Orleans and departments nationwide gathered Sunday in this city wrecked by a hurricane and flooding to remember those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks four years ago.
The firefighters helping with the relief effort assembled around a makeshift memorial for their 343 fallen New York comrades. "Never Forget," it read.
Michael Weinlein, assistant chief of operations for the Fire Department of New York, said he was happy to be able to help New Orleans firefighters the way they helped after 9/11.
"Only those who have experienced tragedy can understand the look in the eyes of the New Orleans firefighters when we arrived. We feel your pain and frustration, but I promise you, from personal experience, you will heal," he said.
New York's Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said Sunday his firefighters are "doing what this department does best, and that is saving lives."
"An entire city has been virtually destroyed ... but four years later, we are in a position to respond with the same generosity of spirit which was shown to us," he said at a fire department memorial service in Brooklyn.
At the New Orleans remembrance, the FDNY accepted the gift of a bell from a nearby church whose steeple was destroyed in the storm. And the fire department from Montgomery County, Md., gave New York firefighters a flag that flew over the Pentagon after the terrorist attacks. It has now been signed by members of the New Orleans Fire Department.
New York firefighter Eddie D'Avanzo, who was wearing a T-shirt commemorating a colleague killed on 9/11, said coming to New Orleans was the right thing to do.
"They helped us out, and I felt like I would not want to be any other place than here helping," D'Avanzo said.
New Orleans Fire Capt. Mike Donaldson said he is overwhelmed by what he's seen and the aid that's flowed into the city. But comparisons to Sept. 11 are difficult, he said.
"A loss of life is different. These guys in New York lost their own. It's a lot different than just losing your home," said Donaldson, whose home is standing but damaged.
Even as firefighters were commemorating the Sept. 11 losses, the work in New Orleans continued.
In the middle of the ceremony, two calls for help came in, forcing at least two engines to depart.
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