9/11 Steel Could Come To Suisun City

Suisun City could receive two 10-foot-long pieces of World Trade Center steel within a year, planned to become part of a public art project in front of the fire station.

Fire Chief Mike O’Brien said he saw an offer for public safety agencies to purchase steel from the ruined Word Trade Center for display as public art projects in a trade magazine article in 2009.

He said he sent out an application through the Suisun City Firefighters Association for some steel that year, but didn’t hear back until March of this year.

“I’d kind of given up on it,” he said.

The idea is to raise money — although it's not certain how much will be needed right now — from the community through PayPal donations to pay for the public art piece that will house the steel. The plan now, is finding a way to get the steel from its current location in New Jersey to Suisun City.

O’Brien said the Travis Air Force Base fire department and the Rio Vista fire department also have steel coming to them, and he’s working with Travis Air Force Base to perhaps fly the other pieces of steel out when the base gets its pieces.

“The option we may explore if Travis falls through is the railroad,” O’Brien said.

On Tuesday, the Suisun City Council gave O’Brien the OK to move forward with the community fundraising project and urged him to find out more about the shape and weight of the steel to better work with Travis Air Force Base loadmasters.

The shape of the steel is a big issue, artistically, O’Brien said.

“If it’s straight pieces like an I-beam, one type of art piece might work, if it’s twisted another type of piece might work,” he said.

But O’Brien cautioned he’s not sure when the steel will arrive in Suisun City, judging by how fast his application was replied to.

“I don’t even know if we’ll even have the steel by September,” he said.