Former 9/11 first responder turns Castle Hayne front yard into memorial

CASTLE HAYNE, N.C. (WWAY-TV) — A former 9/11 first responder has turned his front yard into a tribute to the men and women who lost their lives responding to the attacks 25 years ago.

More than 400 American flags line the front yard of Duane Eastmond’s home in Castle Hayne, each representing fallen first responders from Sept. 11, 2001.

Eastmond, a retired fire captain at Sunny Point Fire Rescue and a 9/11 first responder from New Jersey, remembers that day as if it happened yesterday.

“I was on my way home and was listening to the radio when I heard a plane had crashed into one of the towers in New York City,” Eastmond recalled.

Eastmond helped about 5,500 people get home after they escaped Lower Manhattan by ferry and sought refuge in New Jersey.

“We had to decontaminate them because we didn’t know what they were covered with, and then we got their names and started getting transportation for them wherever their home may be,” he said.

Now, 25 years later, Eastmond is honoring the first responders he worked alongside who never made it home.

The flags represent the 343 firefighters, one fire patrolman, eight medics and EMTs, 23 New York City police officers, one K-9 and 37 Port Authority police officers who died in the attacks.

This is the second year Eastmond has put up the memorial at his home. He said the devastation of 9/11 reinforced the importance of the work first responders do and the need to remember the lives lost.

“Nobody in our generation had experienced anything of that magnitude. Hopefully, no generation ever experiences that again,” Eastmond said.

He encourages community members to visit the memorial at 6305 Mossy Rock Court in Castle Hayne.