PARK SLOPE RESIDENT HAS STREETS RENAMED FOR FALLEN HEROES

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…a Park Slope woman biking to firehouses in Red Hook?

Since September 11, 2001, Josie Sanfeliu has been selflessly struggling to commemorate the lives of fallen firefighters.  In 2008 she began a grassroots campaign to name local streets after heroes who gave their lives for others.  Now, 10 years after the attacks, her work is finally… well, working. 

No stranger to do-gooding, Josie was a volunteer at a voting center in 2001 when the towers fell.  Ms. Sanfeliu remembered Mayor Giuliani’s request to attend firefighter funerals, and chose Engines 279 and 202 in Red Hook because they were located in industrial areas with few residents.  But she took it even further, biking to the firehouses regularly, befriending the firefighters, and even bringing along baked goods for years afterwards. 

Cuban-born, Manhattan-raised, Brooklynite-since-’92 Ms. Sanfeliu did not stop there.  She tells the Brooklyn Ink, “I wanted to get the streets named by the 10^th year anniversary of 9/11.”  And did she make it happen?  You bet your bicycle basket filled with petitions she did! This summer, after years of collecting signatures, filling out paperwork and attending meetings, she met her goal when three streets in Red Hook were renamed Red Hook Heroes Run, FF Ronnie Henderson Way, and Seven in Heaven Way, all in the vicinity of Engines 279 and 202. 

What gives, Miz Josie?  Did you have family who were fighters-of-fire?  No. Did you even know any firefighters prior to 2001?  Nuh-uh.  Yet you made sure some Brooklyn heroes will not be forgotten. I’d say that’s pretty super.