PATCH

By Nick Garber

EAST HARLEM, NY — Two decades after they lost their lives at the World Trade Center, two Harlem firefighters are being memorialized through a new mural that will soon surround the firehouse that they called home.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Fred Scheffold and Joseph Marchbanks, Jr. were battalion chiefs at Engine 35, Ladder 14, Battalion 12, on Third Avenue near East 124th Street. Scheffold was just completing a 24-hour shift at the World Trade Center, with Marchbanks arriving to replace him, when the south tower collapsed on top of them.

The two men were among the few first responders from uptown Manhattan to perish that day. In the ensuing years, their colleagues have remembered Marchbanks and Scheffold through stories, photos, and annual visits to the men's families.

Now, through a coincidence of timing, the two chiefs are being immortalized on the 20th anniversary of the attacks through a mural being painted onto the green construction fence that surrounds the old Pathmark supermarket site on Third Avenue, right next to the firehouse.

"This will put a face outside to the names. Stir up conversation," said a longtime Engine 35 firefighter who once worked alongside Scheffold and Marchbanks.

The mural came together this spring, as artists were at work on the nearby Grandscale Mural Project. The firefighter — who asked not to be identified by name — approached organizers with the idea of beautifying the fence by the firehouse, where giant letters spelled out "FDNY PARKING ONLY."

After debating a few subjects, with the anniversary approaching, the firefighter and the artist, Robin Alcantara (known as Blazay), settled on Scheffold and Marchbanks. As inspiration, the firehouse lent a couple of photographs of the two men, as well as an image of the giant banner reading "We Will Never Forget" that is hung on the firehouse every September.

Though funding for the murals had run out, organizers Uptown Grand Central secured another donation from the property owner to make it happen.

"Those stories never go away"

Of the roughly 50 firefighters who make up Engine 35, only around five remain who were working on 9/11. But even the new hires are eager to learn about Scheffold, a marathon runner, avid reader and father of three daughters — and Marchbanks — a father of two who insisted on being called a "firefighter" despite his status as a chief.

At the annual memorials honoring both men, the crowds have only grown, said Steve Damato, a former captain at Engine 35 who has helped lead each year's services.

"You'd think that it would peter out," he told Patch. "And it hasn't. The numbers last year were as big as the numbers ever were."

To Damato, the anniversary is a chance to remember two men he knew, but wishes he had known better. Marchbanks stands out in Damato's mind for his generosity, his joyousness, and his mischievous — and frequent — laugh.

Scheffold, meanwhile, was adventurous and "in for anything." An elder in the firehouse, Scheffold was sturdy under pressure, and Damato was just starting to get to know him better in September 2001.

"I was getting closer to him," Damato said. "And then he got killed."

The "never forget" credo is interpreted broadly at Engine 35, the anonymous firefighter said, referring not only to the first responders who died but also to the civilians who lost their lives, and even the violence of the wars that sprung from 9/11.

The 20th anniversary, he said, is a chance to stop those memories from fading.

"The further it gets away, you think, 'Will people start to forget? Will people take it as just another day?'" he said. "If people just take a little time out of their day and think about all the lives that were lost, that's what we want."

The new mural will be completed in the coming days next to Engine 35/Ladder 14/Battalion 12 at 2282 Third Ave.