"Dada"

FF Michael H. Haub FDNY Ladder Co. 4

photo credit: Haub Family

Michael H. Haub had been a member of the FDNY for slightly more than two years when he was killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  FF Haub had joined the FDNY as a "probie" when he was thirty-one.  Although fairly new to the FDNY on the day he died, he was an experienced firefighter.  He had served as the Chief of the Roslyn Heights Highlands Volunteer Fire Department prior to joining the FDNY.  

He was thirty-four years young on the day he died.  He and his wife, Erika, had two children.  His son, Michael Andreas, was four when his father died.  FF Haub's little girl, Kiersten, was but seventeen months old. 

On September 11, 2001, as her mother and some family friends sat glued to the television in the Haub family's living room, watching the seemingly unreal images from lower Manhattan, Kiersten pointed to a framed photo of her father and said, "Dada".  According to Erika Haub, it was the first time Kiersten had ever said it.  

The morning of September 11, 2001, FF Haub's tour was just ending when the call came in about the attacks and he immediately headed south to lower Manhattan with more than a dozen members of his house.  His remains were found in the debris of what had been the lobby of the South Tower and six months after his death his family held a memorial service for him.  

In 2019, the medical examiner's office was able to identify more remains as being those of FF Haub.  On September 10, 2019, his family held a second funeral service for him.  His young widow, Erika, has remarried and his two children, Michael and Kiersten, are now adults in their early twenties.  

Kiersten Haub, Erika Starke, and Michael Haub - 09/10/2019

Photo Credit - Associated Press

Each has honored his memory in the best way possible - by living their life.  Moving forward while never losing sight of their history...

...or their hero. 

-AK