CLINTONVILLE, WI- The City of Clintonville is know for many things. Hundreds of miles separate Clintonville Wisconsin and New York City, but they are tied very close and September 11 is a reminder of that.
All of the firetrucks that are used by the New York Fire Department start in Clintonville. That included all of the apparatuses that were lost twenty years ago, and all of the ones that were used to replace them.
“We have been making firetrucks for FDNY for a long time and it dates back to the early 1900’s so we have a long history with New York,” said Daryl George, who was working at FWD Seagrave on that tragic day, twenty years ago, and still works there today. “You know, 9-11 was pretty devastating and the news that was coming this way from New York was just unbelievable.”
He remembers coming to work the next morning.
“Early in the morning, it was dark and calm and I walked into the front gates and there was one of the trucks that was just finished, and it rolled out the door, on to 12th Street and off to New York.”
He says it was then that he learned that they had a lot of work to do.
“We started to hear the number of 54 trucks that they needed immediately. We got agreements from our other customers that we could postpone their orders and we started making 100 percent FDNY trucks, he said. “Within a month or two they were trying to get trucks out the door to replace the ones that had been crushed.”
He said it was a workload and a time schedule that they never imagined that they would be forced to meet, but he and his coworkers considered it their duty.
“It was chaos, but it was controlled chaos on our part to try to get all of these trucks made as soon as possible,” he said. “It makes you proud to work at a place like this.”
It is hard to imagine a fire department without trucks and nearly impossible for them to do the job they need to do to help people. George says the company and the workers received a lot of credit after that, but feels the credit should be given to where it is due.
“The heroes were FDNY and the people of New York. We did everything we could to help them and I feel proud of that.”
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