Community Corner
Changed by 9/11: Michael Araujo, Firehouse Pizza Owner
Years later, fire rescue became his business' theme.
Michael Araujo made it as far as Patchogue on his commute into Manhattan the morning of 9/11 before he heard news of the attack on the radio and knew he wouldn’t be able to get to his office at 6th Avenue and Canal Street in lower Manhattan.
“I turned around and said, ‘this cannot be real,’” he said. “I didn’t know what to do or how I could help.”
Araujo, who was working in construction, wanted to help clean up the crumbled towers, but didn’t know how to get involved. About one month later, he joined the . Even after joining, crews already on scene forbid him to participate, but he felt empowered to at least be able to offer in an official capacity.
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Six years later, he parlayed his firefighting passion into one of Westhampton Beach’s pizza joints, on Montauk Highway. The walls of the to-go shop are adorned in firefighter memorabilia, including old oxygen tanks, a mural of his fellow fighters painted by his daughter, Christie Araujo, and a tribute to Remsenburg firefighter Andrew Jordan who died that day.
