Edmonds 9-11 Memorial Design Plan Unveiled; Web Site Is Up

Plans for the were laid out this week with the debut of a Web site showing what it will look like.

Plenty of people got a glimpse of the memorial, overseen by the Snohomish County Fire District 1's Fire 1 Foundation, at a booth this past weekend at A Taste of Edmonds.

, an artifact from the destroyed World Trade Center, was taken to the Fallen Firefighter Memorial Park at Fire Station 17 on Sixth Avenue North.

The park was created to honor a local firefighter, Capt. Bill Angel, who died in the line of duty in 1995. The new memorial will more fully represent all of those lost and continue to perish due to the terrorist attack of Sept. 11.

"The World Trade Center wil be the centerpiece of the park," said firefighter Dave Erickson, who traveled to New York to take ownership of the steel beam on behalf of Snohomish County Fire District 1, which provides fire service to Edmonds.

The memorial will be supported by two stainless-steel towers, to be elevated above a pile of broken granite. A stained glass wall with the silhouette of a skyline will form the backdrop.

There will be 3,000 panels of glass in the memorial wall, each representing a person lost on 9/11. The clear panels will be for civilians in the buildings and in the airplanes. There will be 343 red panels for the firefighters who died on 9/11, as well as 60 blue panels for the police officers (both NYPD and Port Authority) who died at Ground Zero.

"Those red and blue panels will be arranged in the shape of a flag so the light coming through the memorial wall will illuminate it," said Erickson. "And that light will pass itself across the memorial."

The concrete base will be in shape of a pentagon, to pay tribute to the 125 who lost their lives at the Pentagon. Four trees will represent the four planes that went down, and a grassy area will represent the Pennsylvania field where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.

The existing memorial will be moved under the tree. "We’ll surround it with vegetation and benches for a more introspective environment," said Erickson. 

Edmonds 9-11 Memorial donations

Firefighters of IAFF Local 1828 are now collecting donations for the Edmonds 9-11 Memorial. The project has a cost of about $150,000. As per the requirements of the Port Authority of New York, no tax dollars are allowed for the construction of this memorial.

Therefore, the firefighters are asking for help from the general public, private corporations and civic groups to donate as they feel appropriate. In addition, firefighters will be raffling a hand-blown glass firefighter's helmet, an accurately sized helmet created by glass artist Dimitri Michaelidas. It is valued at $2,000.

You can view the helmet on display with the WTC beam at Station 17 in Edmonds. The winner will be chosen just before Christmas. Raffle tickets are $34.30 each. Only 5,000 tickets will be sold.

Donations can also be made to the Fire 1 Foundation, PO Box 12915, Everett WA 98206-2915.