Fire Island News

By Karl Grossman

A new way to grow eelgrass is being pursued off Barrett Beach on Fire Island. The concept is that of Robert (Rob) Vasiluth. And its development originates with 9/11.

Vasiluth, an operating engineer from Suffolk County, was in Manhattan hoisting a section of a sign high up on the Renaissance Times Square Hotel when just a few miles to the south he saw the World Trade Center being struck.

“I saw the second plane hit,” recounts Vasiluth. “I went home to my family” in Commack, he said, feeling “so terrible.” And the next day he was at Ground Zero, part of a bucket brigade that hand-to-hand was moving debris. Soon his task was cutting steel so corpses could be found in the pile

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