by Simone Weichselbaum
Former firefighters are hustling to create a museum honoring 343 of their FDNY comrades killed on 9/11 - one helmet at a time.
Ex-Firefighter Artie Jens, 49, is leading the effort to build a $2 million museum on a West Side pier. He hopes its marquee attraction will be individual portraits of the helmets worn by the fallen 343.
Jens launched the "343 Firefighter's Memorial Project" by personally painting the battered helmet of Firefighter Michael Mullan, 34, who worked alongside him at Ladder Co. 12 in Chelsea before the terror attacks.
"Guys take great pride in their helmets," Jens said yesterday. "It is the most recognized piece of gear that people see," he said.
"The guys who went in the towers and did their job, it's an honorable thing. I wanted to memorialize that."
Jens teamed up with retired Deputy Chief Jim Riches and the department's family assistance unit to ask relatives of the 343 men to cooperate.
Theresa Mullan, 71, said she happily allowed Jens to replicate her son's helmet. She's now encouraging other families to do the same.
"As a mother, I want to share my pride of my son with the world," said Mullan, whose son was killed while racing through 2World Trade Center answering a "Mayday" call.
Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano deemed Jens' project "a very worthwhile cause."
Jens hopes to raise $3 million through the project's website, the343memorial.org, to build the movable "House of Houses" museum that can be positioned on a West Side pier.
Jens and Riches plan to tour with the museum. "It will make future generations look up to real heroes," Riches said. "Not the phony ones you see on cable TV."
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