"Tribute to Firefighters"

"Tribute to Firefighters"

This sculpture stands on the corners of Kilmore and Madras Streets in Christchurch. The words below are from the plaques in front of it.

“A Tribute To Firefighters”

This sculpture within the Firefighters Reserve stands as a silent tribute to fire fighters world wide who risk their lives daily in their pursuit of duty.

Firefighters are always in the front line and never more so than on September 11, 2001, when international terrorists hijacked four domestic American jet airliners and flew two of them, along with their passengers, into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Centre. The two towers imploded and collapsed, and among the more than 2.800 dead were 343 New York firefighters. All that remained of the twin towers, and the lives lost within, was a mountainous pile of twisted steel and smoking rubble.

In May 2002, five steel girders, weighing 5.5 tons were salvaged from the site of the World Trade Centre and gifted to the City of Christchurch by the City of New York for use in a public art work to honour all firefighters worldwide. The suspended component or “spear” in it’s red hot state. Fell from the 102nd floor of World Trade Centre Tower Two piercing the subway below.

The sculpture stands within the dedicated reserve opposite the Central Fire Station on the banks of the Avon River, near the historic site of the Tautahi Pa.

The opening of the reserve and unveiling of the sculpture on October 26th 2002, marked the beginning of the 2002 Seventh World Firefighters Games in Christchurch.

This sculpture “tribute to Firefighters” was created by Christchurch artist Graham Bennet. A work of stark simplicity, the composition was derived from observations of firefighting skills, notions of overhead dangers and of recovery.