CLINTONVILLE, Wis. -- It didn't take long for towns and businesses across the country to start feeling the effects of Sept. 11, including one company, in one small Wisconsin city, far away from New York.
Clintonville is more than 1,000 miles away from New York City.
At the town's largest employer, though, there's a much closer connection.
Seagrave Fire Aparatus builds all of New York's firetrucks.
"We have friends out there. They were our trucks, our people," welder Bill Schoen said.
On Sept. 11, dozens of the company's trucks were destroyed.
"I was astonished actually, I couldn't believe that I was seeing that," welder Jacob Gibbs said.
The massive steel trucks, built to withstand almost anything, built to save lives, were crippled.
"They were just mangled. Most of the parts, we couldn't even recognize," assembler Connie Crain said.
"The very heavy frame rails were twisted like pretzels, and I guess my impression when I looked at it is, 'If this can do this to strong steel, those people never had a chance," Seagrave President Jim Green said.
Within a month, the company got the call: New York needed 54 replacement trucks and fast.
It usually takes a year to get an order out, but this time, it took just months.
"It was rough, but we knew we had a job to do. We knew we had to get it done," Gibbs said.
By January, the first four trucks left for New York.
"I was here when they pulled out of the yard. Everybody standing around, it was really impressive. Beautiful trucks -- especially that one with the flag on there," Schoen said.
"A great feeling of pride -- to know we were helping them get back on line and get out on the streets, to the people that need them, it felt good," Gibbs said.
One year later, things are still busy.
"When I get done with this one, on my schedule, I got six more trucks, " Schoen said.
"No doubt about it, since Sept. 11, business here has been good. The company has been awarded some larger-than-normal contracts, but for the workers out on the floor, it's bittersweet," WISN 12 News reporter Jessica Jallings said.
They're still working on that New York order -- a constant reminder of what happened that day.
"You know, I still get pretty emotional when I start talking about what happened. You think about it all the time. It was terrible," Schoen said.
New York officials told Seagrave that during the collapse of the twin towers, about 30 firefighters were saved by jumping into the steel cabs of the trucks.
It's motivation, to keep going.
"It makes you take a lot more pride and just respect your job a whole lot more," Cain said.
"I think even today, people are saying what can we do to help? That was something very concrete -- that a little town here in Wisconsin was able to do for the city of New York, who took the brunt of the attack for all of us," Green said.
Many of the firefighters who died in New York last year had visited the Clintonville plant in the past and had become friends with the workers.
Seagrave, with help from community fund-raisers, is also donating a $350,000 firetruck to New York at the end of the year.
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