SHAWANO, WI- To many, working a job is a way to make a living, but when your job directly helps others when you least expect, it can be one of the more rewarding feelings.
Shawano Alderman Kevin Barkow has worn many hats through his working career. One important one that he wore in 2001 was at Marion Body Works, and it remains in his memories every year in September.
Twenty years ago, Barkow got the chance to meet some people with some unbelievable stories. Those meetings help connect him directly to to what was going on in New York after that September morning.
“We knew at that point that it was not accidental, there was someone or something involved.”
Because of the that, Marion Body was busy with some manufacturing work to help provide fire trucks for departments throughout the country.
Trucks that were used by the New York Fire Department were manufactured in neighboring Clintonville, but the City of Marion was also important in that process.
Barkow remembers shortly after the planes hit the World Trade Center, firefighters were in need. He said they were just finishing up a truck for a fire department in North Carolina and they were scheduled to come in that day to check it out.
“Their flight, like all the other flights was grounded,” Barkow said. “They ended up having to drive a car from North Carolina up to Marion and they ended up doing the inspection of their truck and they wanted to get it done fast because the first thing that they wanted to do was to get their new firetruck to New York City.”
Barkow said to see emergency personnel so focused on getting out to New York with a brand new firetruck that they have not even used for their own needs yet was eye opening.
“It was incredible,” Barkow said. “When a building is on fire, you instinct as a human being is to run out, a firefighter’s instinct is to run in.” He says he saw that same kind of mentality when it came to them getting to New York to help.
He also got the chance to attend a firefighter’s conference months later and heard some of the stories from people who were right at Ground Zero. He says one story is etched into his memory.
“There was a homeless man that they dealt with on a daily basis and he told the medics that he could not make the thumping stop,” Barkow said. “The more they talked to him, they were able to figure out that the thumping noise that the man was talking about was the people hitting the ground after jumping from the towers, because it was so terrible up there, they would rather jump to their death.”
Barkow says every September 11th, he continues to think about the lessons learned. “We can’t let our guard down,” Barkow said. “We let our guard down once and look at what happened.”
He says he is also honored to have gotten the chance to work so close with people that we can consider heroes.
“So many firemen were lost on 9-11, I just think it made the industry as a whole become a lot closer.”
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