Page 39 - January 2016

A hero by the way
IN MEMORIAM
Chicago Firefighter Daniel Capuano answers his final alarm
As Ladder 34 idled outside decorated with flowers, firefighters filled the chapel at the Southwest Side’s St. Rita of Cascia High School to pay their final respects to Chicago Firefighter Daniel Capuano. Outside, hun- dreds more firefighters, police officers, paramedics and other first responders from across the U.S. stood in formation as a light snow did little to deter their dedication to a fallen brother. The Dec. 18 service mourned the loss of the 15-year veteran firefighter who died while fight- ing a warehouse fire on Dec. 14.
something he did.” Chicago Firefighters
Alongside family members including his wife of 20 years, Julie, and three children, Amanda, 16, Andrew, 13, and Nick, 12, those who offered their sentiments at the service included Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who proclaimed, “With care and compassion in his heart he rushed into the chaos of a burning warehouse in South Chicago and made the ultimate sacrifice for the city he loved. So while our hearts are broken because of Dan’s loss, they’re full of gratitude for the life he lived, for the example he set and for the heroic service he rendered to the city of Chicago.”
Union Local 2 President Thomas Ryan Jr. presented Capuano’s wife with the International Association of Firefighters Commemo- rative Medal of Honor.
It was the 43-year-old firefighter’s second fire of the day that found Capuano grappling with thick smoke while searching the second floor for the fire’s source. Capuano fell down an unmarked open elevator shaft and died hours later.
After the service, ladders from two south suburban fire trucks stretched high over 111th Street west of Cicero Avenue, with an American flag flying between them. The funeral procession of purple cloth-draped fire apparatus and other emergency vehicles filled the neighborhoods of Beverly and Mount Greenwood, passing trees and poles wrapped in pur- ple and black ribbons in Capuano’s honor.
Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago also delivered a eulogy, remembering Capuano as a man of service.
City building department officials said the building’s owner didn’t have proper permits and the removal of the elevator was unauthorized. Court filings call the building “an immediate and ongoing threat of irreparable harm” to the public. Ryan has said buildings with those kinds of alleged hazards are hard to police, but firefighters encounter them too often. d
“Your dad is not a hero because of the way he died; he’s a hero by the way he lived,” Santiago said to the family. “People didn’t always know his name, but they knew his smile. If you worked with him for only a few minutes, he would have you laughing by something he said or
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he lived