The Freedom Tower

No one who saw the broadcast to the fallen firefighters of 911 will ever forget the taunt delivered by Mike Moran to terrorist Osama Bin Laden in honor of his fallen biological brother Battalion Chief John Moran, a Belle Harbor resident killed at the World Trade Center.

“Osama, step right up and kiss my royal Irish ass,” Mike said in the broadcast.

It was John and the hundreds of others like him that was on the mind of Dunn and his colleagues as they raced through the streets of Queens that morning. Bob Stec had Moran in mind too, a fellow chief from Ladder Co. 3, one of the good guys who literally wore the white hats.

“The men of Ladder Co. 3 told the New York Daily News that Firefighter Michael Moran was speaking for all of them when he told Osama Bin Laden to kiss his royal Irish on national television.” Moran, who works at the Manhattan ladder company, set off a frenzy at benefit “Concert for New York City” at Madison Square Garden when he blasted Bin Laden from the stage.

When Stec’s men arrived in Queens, the neighborhood was eerily familiar.

Stec and the firefighters and cops who rushed to the scene, quickly realized this fire would resurrect the nightmare of the Sept. 11. They had been to Belle Harbor many times before, for Moran’s funeral and many others since the terrorist attacks.

“I raced here after finishing my overnight tour, and the first thing that came to my mind was, don’t tell me. Not again,’” said firefighter Brian Harvey of Engine Co. 236 told Firefighter.com.

“It’s just devastating. I think the whole department is kind of numb. You’re still thinking about what happened at the trade center, and then something like this . . . I don’t even think it’s hit us right now,” said Fireman Randy Ballentine.