Playground at Prall renamed for 9/11 hero

Playground at Prall renamed for 9/11 hero

 
 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Lt. Charlie Margiotta loved being a firefighter, so much that when duty called he never thought twice about the consequences.

Margiotta was on his way home from work on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when he heard about the World Trade Center attack on his car radi.

The oft-decorated 20-year veteran of the Fire Department, assigned to Battalion 22, drove to the nearest firehouse and jumped on the Rescue Co. 5 truck in Concord.

A few days later, the ruined remains of the truck were recovered at Ground Zero, but none of the 11 men on that rig ever returned home.

Yesterday, on his daughter Norma Jean's 23rd birthday at IS 27, where his brother, Michael, teaches physical education, Charlie Margiotta was remembered.

City officials and memnbers of the Margiotta family cut the ribbon on a new synthetic-turf field outside the school. More important, they cut the ribbon on the "Lieutenant Charles Margiotta Field," a reminder that those victims of 9/11 are gone but will never be forgotten.

The new synthetic-turf playing field, which cost $1.3 million, replaces the original crumbling concrete-and-asphalt ballfield. For more coverage of the event, see Thursday's North Shore edition of the Advance or go on-line to silive.com.

By Staten Island Advance Staten Island Advance