ROGER CLARK
Courtesy NY1.com
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NEW YORK -- Firefighter Greg Sclafani checked the Ladder 85 roster board for the last time Wednesday. It was his last shift before retiring, after 20 years on the job.
The end of his days as a firefighter coincide with the end of recovery work at the World Trade Center site, where Sclafani spent countless hours searching for lost brothers.
"Every time each and every member pulled out a body it was satisfaction to some family and closure to some family," Sclafani said. "That's what kept us all going."
And while many of their comrades remain unaccounted for, Sclafani and other firefighters said they believe their work is done at the site.
"I don't think there is any further we can go, as long as that site is squared off and the last shovel is taken out, then I'm satisfied," Sclafani said.
Fellow firefighter Joseph Collica agreed. "I'm somewhat relieved that the page is being closed," he said. "Obviously, it’s not going to end overnight, but eventually it does have to end, and this is just a step in that direction."
Ladder Company 85 lost one of its brothers at the World Trade Center. Chuck Margiota was returning home from working a shift at a house in Brooklyn when he heard about the terrorist attacks. He went to the nearest firehouse, jumped on the truck and raced to the twin towers.
That firehouse was Rescue Company 5, which lost 11 men, plus Margiota, on September 11. The remains of only two of them have been identified.
At Rescue 5, firefighters also have mixed emotions about the end of the recovery effort, although the search goes on at the Fresh Kills Landfill.
"After this whole tragedy happened, we at least wanted to bring the guys home to their families from the site, not from anywhere else, not from the medical examiners office or anywhere else," said Gerry Keonig of Rescue 5. "We wanted to bring them home from there, and that didn't happen, and that’s very hard for us and the families."
And while this nightmarish chapter comes to an end, the memories of their fallen brothers will live on.
"You come to this firehouse and you just start thinking, ‘Where are these guys? Did they suffer? Hopefully they're all together," said firefighter Mike Lombardi. "When you go home, you still feel a little guilty: Oh my God, you’re alive and these guys aren't. But life has to go on."
