Statue at Kingdom City memorial shares connection with New York

The original Firefighters Memorial statue commissioned for the memorial at Kingdom City was donated to the City of New York after the terrorist attacks destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center; it is seen on E. 8th Avenue in New York City. A duplicate of the statue was created later and is now at the Firefighters Memorial in Kingdom City. The original statue was displayed in New York for about one year but its current location is unknown. Photo courtesy: www.flickr.com/photos/mshades/161658293

By Don Norfleet

Monday, September 12, 2011

One of Callaway County’s connections with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., is the Firefighters Memorial statue in Kingdom City.

The six-foot by six-foot bronze statue is an exact duplicate of a statue that was given to the city of New York to honor fallen New York firefighters lost when both World Trade Center towers were destroyed when hijacked airliners crashed into them.

The firm that created the statue, Pittsburgh-based Matthews International Corporation, donated it to the City of New York after the Firefighters Association of Missouri approved of the donation.

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