Des Plaines gets piece of World Trade Center

Des Plaines is now the proud owner of a 114-pound steel girder that was among the supports that held up the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City before they collapsed Sept. 11, 2001.

Standing 33 inches high and 11 inches deep and wide, the rusted beam may not look like much, but it represents a lot to anyone who remembers the fateful events of that day, Des Plaines Deputy Fire Chief Ron Eilken said.

A total of 2,752 people were killed in the World Trade Center attacks, including 343 firefighters and 60 police officers from New York City and the Port Authority.

“It changed all our lives,” Eilken said.

Numerous fire departments nationwide helped with the rescue and recovery efforts after the attacks, although Des Plaines wasn’t among them.

City officials have been vying for a piece of the towers, as have many other suburban communities, since September 2009 to commemorate the tragedy.

“I think having a piece of one of the actual trade towers is just a nice way to memorialize what happened that day,” Eilken said.

In February, Des Plaines inked an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that maintains an archive of materials salvaged from the World Trade Center ruins. The metal piece finally arrived Friday.

“We were lucky to get one,” Eilken said. “They ran out of pieces quicker than they thought. They’ve had (thousands of) requests, and they are trying to accommodate as many as possible.”

More than 900,000 applicants sought a piece of the towers. Fire departments in Carpentersville and Mundelein also are awaiting their pieces.

Des Plaines officials plan to turn the piece into a memorial that will likely be unveiled during a ceremony marking the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11, Eilken said.

“The goal is to get ready for that,” said Eilken, who retires Nov. 16.

Eilken said he will meet with Des Plaines acting City Manager Jason Slowinski and Mayor Marty Moylan to determine where to place the memorial.

“We are leaning toward right at city hall where we do our Sept. 11 ceremony,” he said.

Eilken said the piece will need to be preserved to withstand abuse from the elements.

“It’s our responsibility now,” he said. “There’s lives associated with this. A lot of people died because of what happened that day with that piece of steel.”

A few years ago, Naperville acquired a piece of one of the World Trade Center beams and some smaller fragments that are part of the Cmdr. Dan Shanower/Sept. 11 memorial downtown.

Mundelein Fire Department officials hope the metal remnant will be part of a public display at their main fire station on Midlothian Road, and that the memorial will be completed by September.

Carpentersville Fire Department plans to incorporate the steel into a memorial outside of Fire Station 1 at 213 Spring St.

Piece: Towns hope to incorporate beams into 9/11 memorials