“It was just mind blowing to the point you had to give it a few moments to take everything in” recalled the first responder. It was an extremely cold winter night on February 12, 2006. The temperature was below zero and a brisk winter wind blew from the west. The quiet but beautiful town of my childhood, Clarence Center, New York. All of my growing up takes place here, the good like carving pumpkins in the fall and watermelons in the summer, jumping in the leaves or in the pool, and the bad, like this night.

I was in bed sleeping happily when it happened; and honestly I didn’t even wake up when the biggest event in the town’s history happened. To get more information on the subject I interviewed my parents Michelle x, who was awake when it happened and volunteered to help through all of it, and Steve, who was a first responder and a volunteer fire fighter who went to the scene.  On February 12, 2006, Flight 3407 crashed just two blocks away from where I lay peacefully asleep. My Mom says “I heard a sound like a snow plow dragging its blade along the road or a train running off its tracks.”

Then she saw a huge burst of light, “almost like the sky was on fire for a moment.” She murmurs as she thinks back to the day.

  After that came the noise of the explosion. My Dad was asleep on a chair and was awoken by the noise of it, he rushed over to the scene two blocks away in just pants and a long sleeve shirt, and he would have someone return to the house to get him warmer cloths. The reports of the crash that came over my Dads pager, or walkie talkie like device that was used for communications, thought that the crash was a small plane. It wasn’t, when my Dad arrived he was “shocked and confused” he recalls

“Only the wing was in sight, the rest of the plane was scattered around the yard or dug into the ground.”

Says my Dad

The plane, a commercial jet, was holding more than 50 people.

At first my Dad asked what he could do to help but all he could do was help put out the fire and send more calls for help from other fire halls. By morning the damage was done but they finally got the planes fire out and all that was left was pieces of the plane and still a little smoldering of hot pieces. That night is burned into my Dads head like it just happened yesterday. As for me I slept until 9 the next day because school was cancelled. Being in kindergarten, “all you cared about were the Buffalo Sabres and the fact that school got cancelled that day!” says my mom when I asked about how I reacted.

My elementary school was only a quarter mile from the crash so the roads were closed around it. Once I learned what happened I didn’t really understand what the big deal was. Again I was only 5 or 6 so it was understandable. However as I started to really understand the tragedy I drew a picture of my gorgeous yellow house on a sunny day with a plane crashing into it. My parents say that was just how little kids showed how they understood things.

The community was extremely shaken up by this. “All of these big time news crews like CNN news and NBC news had helicopters flying over the scene and crews on the ground. For a little town this was as much attention as we ever got.” Mumbles my Dad as he remembers that awful week.

The community pulled through though. The Clarence Center café made food for the volunteers while the volunteers made soup and refreshments for the firemen. After two days of non-stop help, my dad and I went to North Carolina to visit my Dads mom. Both of us were terrified of going on the same model of the plane that had just crashed practically next door. When we got there most of the trip was spent by my nana keeping my mind off home and my Dad, being a minister, and setting up dinners for the families who lost loved ones and other relief work.

After those three days we returned to the beaten up town of Clarence who were still trying to recover from this tragedy. It was still winter break when we returned so all day we would help doing whatever we could. It took a few weeks but eventually the town recovered and life was almost normal again. Almost, because “you can’t drive down Long Street without thinking of the fifty people that lost their lives on the dreadful night of February 12, 2006.” Says Dad. Do you think Clarence will ever forget this?

“Some things, you just will never forget!”