Additional K-9 Sirius Memorial F.A.S.T. Co.    page 9 - First on the web - Sept. 2001 As life continues for Dave - who never asked to be a hero! HOF fans salute heroes of Sept. 11 attacks Saturday, August 3, 2002 By CHARITA M. GOSHAY Repository staff writer Repository / Joy Newcomb HEROES WELCOMED. Three New York City firefighters and a police officer who survived the World Trade Center attack Sept. 11 were guests at the Mayor’s Breakfast on Friday. Firefighters (from left) Michael Meldrum and William S. Butler and New York City Port Authority officer David Lim listen as Salvator D’Agostino (right) answers a question at a press conference. CANTON — The Mayor’s Breakfast crowd was thrilled to see the newest class of enshrinees, but their longest applause was given to four men who never played the game. Michael Meldrum, William S. Butler and Salvator D’Agostino of the Fire Department of New York’s Ladder Co. 6, and David Lim, a New York City Port Authority officer, were the honored guests at Friday’s Mayor’s Breakfast, which drew more than 4,000 people. The four, who were inside the first World Trade Center tower to collapse Sept. 11, are marshals at this mornings Grand Parade and will attend Monday’s AFC-NFC Hall of Fame Game. When introduced, the audience gave them a standing ovation. “It’s a little overwhelming,” Butler said of the reception. “Especially to be amongst guys you’ve idolized.” “It’s an odd feeling, sitting here, and people are giving you an ovation,” Meldrum added. “It takes your breath away.” The four have been making public appearances around the country, they said, to thank the public for its support. “The goal is not to take any glory way from these five guys,” Butler said of the enshrinees. “We come to these things because we feel we need to thank people for all they’ve done.” “I know the world ‘overwhelmed’ is overused, but it is overwhelming,” Lim said. “We have people asking us for autographs. The only time I give out autographs is when I’m giving a citation.” “We can’t thank people enough,” Meldrum added. The feeling we get around the country is a sense of unity from this,” Lim said. “Let’s hope we can sustain it. People feel our pain. We will never forget that.” The firefighters and Lim were on the 77th floor of the World Trade Centers Tower 1 when it began to collapse.  They were saved when they stopped to help a woman, Josephine Harris, down a stairwell.  When they were rescued nearly five hours later, the stairwell, which had formed a protective “pocket,” was the only part of the building left standing. Of the 15 members of Ladder Co. 6 trapped that day, 14 survived. D’Agostino said that had they not encountered Harris in the stairwell that day, they would have been killed. She had stopped out of exhaustion. “A minute later, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Lim said. “It was truly a miracle,” Butler said. “God willed that we made it through the collapse.” The men recounted their escape, during which they crawled through rubble, walked on I-beams, and descended four stories via a rope. At one point, they were forced to retreat when a Secret Service ammunition depot exploded, discharging bullets. “I thought somebody had landed on the beach,” Lim said. “I was wearing one of those old leather helmets,” Butler said. “I remember wondering if a leather helmet can stop a bullet.” Asked whether life can ever return to some semblance of normalcy, Butler replied, “Nobody’s ever going to get back into the routine. You have to ask yourself, ‘What is normal?’ You never forget the guys who were killed that day, or the people you tried to get out.” “For me, this is the new normal,” D’Agostino said. “My life has been changed drastically.” “We can’t describe to you the devastation,” Meldrum said. “As bad as it looked on TV, pictures don’t begin to do it justice.” The Port Authority, which oversees the city’s public transportation system, lost 37 officers that day, including Lim’s canine partner, Sirius. Lim said the Port Authority enacted extra security measures after the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993, killing 12 people. “It was set up for every possibility, except this one,” he said. None of the four is impressed with the proposed designs for the site. D’Agostino said he doesn’t want anything built on it. “The widows and families want a memorial,” Meldrum said. “But Manhattan real estate is very scarce. It will be a battle, back and forth.” “They want to build similar buildings, 80 stories high,” Lim said. “I have problem with building another set of skyscrapers there.” All football fans, the four were eager to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “I like the Giants — as long as they’re winning,” D’Agostino said to laughter. “Last night, I was having a drink with John Stallworth,” (John does not drink) said Lim, a diehard Steelers fan. “This is just too wild for us to comprehend.” You can reach Repository writer e-mail: Charita Goshay at (330) 580-8313  Dragon Boat Festival, Denver Aug. 18, 2002 Festival emphasizes boats, not dragons  By Ricardo Baca - Denver Post Staff Writer Friday, August 16, 2002 - Dragon Boat Festival, to be held Sunday at Sloan's Lake, is a celebration of Asian culture.  A key component of the festival is the parade, which will end with several speakers, including a police officer involved in rescue efforts in New York after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The race teams will parade around the park at 11:45 a.m., led by a traditional Chinese dragon. Next, David Lim, a K-9 officer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will speak to the crowd. Lim lost his dog in the attacks, helped in the rescue effort and has family members in Colorado. "We feel that it's important for young Asian Americans to see people held up as role models, so we wanted to bring in David Lim," Asakawa said Photo by Denver Post King Saejong Cultural Outreach  David with Counselors Part of a documentary for CNN -August 12 - Demarest, NJ  to air 9/11/02, first anniversary of terrorist attack. CNN  taping, David, K-9 SPRIG & Lindy Gelber (founder) David and happy campers .. . Return to page 14A Return to page 14B Return to page 14C Return to page 14D Return to page 14D2 Return to page 14E Continue to page 14G (more photos) Continue to page 14H Continue to page 15 -more K-9 memorials Return to K-9 Data Return to FAST Co. Index