Ground Zero firefighter memorialized

By Joseph Picard
SPARTA — On September 6 of this year, Joan Costello of Sparta traveled to the New York City Fire Department's headquarters in Brooklyn to take part in a somber and emotional ceremony. On that day the FDNY added 17 names to its World Trade Center Memorial Wall. They are the names of firefighters who have died since the attacks of 9/11 due to illnesses contracted in recovery efforts at Ground Zero. Joan Costello's son, James N. Costello, was one of them.
"Jimmy died on Nov. 25, 2015," Joan Costello said. "The FDNY deemed his death 'In the line of duty.' He was 52."
On Sept. 18, 2001, then Captain James Costello led his men onto the Ground Zero pile in the first Task Force Recovery Operation there. The crew remained on this assignment for a month.
"He did not become sick right away," his mother said. "Years later he developed health problems. He had pancreatic cancer and a neuroendocrine tumor. The FDNY determined that these were caused by working on the pile."
Joan Costello said her son, like many others at Ground Zero in the days and weeks following the attacks, knew the air quality was not healthy but dutifully went about his work.
"How could you not know the air was bad?" she said. "People were having a hard time staying there ten minutes, let alone all day and every day for weeks."
This past Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
The attacks involved four hijacked U.S. airliners. Two were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, one was flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the fourth, intended for Washington, D.C., crashed instead in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after heroic passengers foiled the hijackers' plans. The attacks killed 2,996 people. In New York City, 343 firefighters and 72 police officers were killed.
"Of the 343 New York firefighters killed on 9/11, Jimmy knew 150 of them," Joan Costello said.
She also pointed out that, with the addition of James Costello and the other 16 to the Memorial Wall, the total for New York firefighters killed by post-9/11 diseases contracted at Ground Zero is currently 127.
"And there will be more," she said.
James Costello came to Sparta at age 7. He attended Rev. Brown Elementary School and Pope John XXIII High School, where he wrestled and played football. He went on to Fairfield University.
In 1987, he joined the FDNY and moved to Manhattan. He was assigned to Engine 54, Ladder 4 in mid-town, the same firehouse his father served from until retirement in 1983. Fifteen firefighters from this firehouse died on 9/11. Costello was made battalion chief in 2003 and in that capacity, he was assigned to write the department's World Trade Center Report.
"It was an agonizing assignment for him," his mother said.
He retired in June 2014 and was dead less than 18 months later.
"His wake and funeral were attended by hundreds of firefighters and police officers," Joan Costello said. "The FDNY sent a pumper truck and a fire engine that was emblazoned with his name and held his casket."
Costello's name has since been entered on the electronic scroll at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in lower Manhattan, as well as on the Memorial Wall in Brooklyn. On Sept. 17 his name will be entered on the National Monument to Fallen Firefighters in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
"Jimmy was a lover of people," his mother said. "He would say, 'There are no strangers — only friends we haven't made yet.'"