Firefighter an honored guest in Salisbury

Thomas Gavitt’s grandfather and father were firemen.

So are his two brothers and a brother-in-law.

It never occurred to Gavitt that he would be anything but a fireman.

“There was no doubt,” he said Tuesday from his home in Brooklyn, N.Y. “It’s kind of in the family, I guess.”

Gavitt will spend this coming weekend as an honored guest in Salisbury — part of a nationwide effort to thank New York firefighters for their efforts in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.

As part of Gavitt’s visit, the public is being invited to a 2 p.m. ceremony Saturday at the southern end of Chestnut Hill Cemetery, where the city’s Firemen’s Memorial stands near a former fire station.

The city dedicated the monument in 1944 to Salisbury, East Spencer and Spencer Shops firemen.

Salisbury Mayor Susan Kluttz said city officials will rededicate the firemen’s memorial on Saturday with Gavitt’s help. The city has a master plan to make a small park around the monument to include a wrought iron fence, benches and landscaping.

Saturday’s ceremony will include the planting of a tree.

Kluttz also has planned a dinner for Gavitt and his wife, Kathryn, at her home Friday evening and a noon luncheon with Salisbury firefighters and city officials at the Salisbury Fire Department’s Central station at noon Saturday.

The lunch menu will include Cheerwine and barbecue. Gavitt said Tuesday he has never been to North Carolina.

Kluttz also has asked downtown merchants to provide some gift certificates so the new York couple might take advantage of shopping in the central business district. Comfort Suites has provided free lodging for the Gavitts during their stay.

Someone from the Fire Department will be assigned as the couple’s escort for the weekend.

On Sunday morning, Grace Methodist Church on Faith Road has invited the couple and Salisbury City Council to participate in their “Heroes Sunday” service.

The Gavitts will return to New York later Sunday.

Kluttz said she hopes that she has not overbooked the couple and allowed them some time to relax.

“It’s still so emotional to them,” Kluttz said of their memories of Sept. 11. “I don’t want them to spend the whole weekend talking about it. I want them to get away, and I want them to see the hospitality this city offers.”

Gavitt said Tuesday that he and his wife are looking forward to the trip as “a welcome diversion.”

About the third week after the attacks, Gavitt spent a week’s rotation at Ground Zero, clearing the debris and searching through it.

“It was pretty traumatic,” he said, “finding some body parts, missing some friends and just knowing there were no survivors at that point.”

Gavitt, a firefighter for 21 years, especially recalled the earliest days and weeks after the Twin Towers collapsed when everything seemed to be one color from all of the dust.

On the morning of Sept. 11, Gavitt was returning home from his previous shift at Ladder House 147 in Brooklyn when the first passenger jet flew into one of the towers. After terrorists hit the second tower, Gavitt reported back to his station as part of a total recall of all firefighters.

He and other firefighters from Brooklyn loaded buses that took them into Manhattan. Their immediate duties included a search of buildings close to the collapsed towers, looking for the injured.

No firefighter in Gavitt’s Brooklyn station lost his life that day, but members of that station lost brothers and cousins. His immediate neighborhood lost “a fellow right down the block” and two firemen from other stations, Gavitt said.

By now, things have returned to a better sense of normalcy — as much as that’s possible, Gavitt said.

“Seeing it in pictures, you really don’t grasp the whole thing,” he added. “It’s something I never want to see again.”

Kluttz signed up Salisbury as a participant in the U.S. Conference of Mayors program to honor N.Y. firefighters during the group’s meeting earlier this year in Washington and New York. Roughly 150 other cities are participating in the effort, also meant to promote travel and tourism in the country.

Kluttz has spoken to the Gavitts by telephone after learning last week that they had drawn Salisbury as their host city. The couple have two daughters and a grandchild.

“I think we have just gotten a fantastic representative of the fire department,” Kluttz said.

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or mwineka@salisburypost.com .