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9/11 Site Worker Honors Safety Harbor Firefighters
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Published: September 2, 2008
ST. PETERSBURG - It was a month after 9/11, in a designated zone where construction workers and firefighters could take a break when they weren't retrieving remains from the rubble.
One of the construction workers was Patrick Arcese. The way he tells it, he glanced over, saw five men wearing Safety Harbor Fire Department jackets, and started chatting them up, because Arcese's mother lives in Safety Harbor.
Three years later, Arcese was lying on his back in his mother's house, recuperating from emergency surgery to treat cancer, when he broke out in a torrential sweat. He told his mother to call 911, and of the five or so Safety Harbor firefighters who responded to the call, two were among the group he saw in New York.
Arcese was so appreciative of the medical help he received that day in 2004 that he decided to track down the names of the five firefighters he saw in New York, and thank them in a special way.
Tonight, at the Tampa Bay Rays vs. Yankees game, he will present the five with special plaques commemorating their service in the Big Apple before the baseball game commences. The five to receive the plaques are: Fire Marshal Richard Brock, Deputy Chief Mike Eash, Capt. Ray Duke, firefighter and paramedic Michael Pounds, and firefighter and inspector David Pacheco Jr.
The plaques commemorate bricks purchased by Arcese on the men's behalf; the bricks will be displayed at the yet-to-be-built World Trade Center memorial, said Kimberly Armitage, special events specialist for Safety Harbor.
"They treated me like a brother and I'm not a firefighter," said Arcese, now 49, of the medical attention he received on that August day in 2004. "I appreciate them. I thank them so much."
Arcese says he thinks the cancer, which is in remission, was caused by his work in the 9/11 rubble in New York, and he believes, had the Safety Harbor Fire Department not decided to rush him to the hospital in 2004, he would be dead now.
Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.
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