NEW YORK — The printers buzzed to life in every firehouse in New York City last week, and each spit out an identical bulletin. A death in the line of duty.
NEW YORK — The printers buzzed to life in every firehouse in New York City last week, and each spit out an identical bulletin. A death in the line of duty.
“With regret, the department announces the death of Battalion Chief Lawrence T. Stack,” the note read, “as a result of injuries sustained while operating at Manhattan Box 5-5-8087.” The call from that box had come in at 8:47 a.m. Sept. 11, 2001. The announcement had not been made earlier because Stack’s remains had not been found.
Stack, 58, had served almost 33 years. His funeral will be held Friday at Sts. Philip and James Church in St. James on Long Island, with the expansive pageantry and huge turnout of firefighters and officers that accompany all departmental ceremonies.
Stack’s family came to learn where and how he perished on the day terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center. But they put off the funeral, hoping that some trace of him would be identified at ground zero.
“Weeks turned into months,” said Lt. Michael Stack, one of the chief’s two sons, both firefighters. “Months turned into years. Two years turned into five, turned into 10. Now it’s 15.”
The Catholic funeral Mass requires the presence of remains of the deceased. This requirement was satisfied, unknowingly, by the chief because he had added his name to the bone marrow registry as a possible donor in 2000, and, in doing so, gave a blood sample for type matching. Approached by the family last year, the New York Blood Center located the vial containing the sample in a facility in Minnesota.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Stack was in his office in Brooklyn when word arrived that a plane had struck the north tower of the World Trade Center. Stack and others hurried to the roof with binoculars. They saw the second plane strike the south tower.
“He lowered his binoculars and said, ‘Guys, I think they’re going to need us,’” his son said, recalling what he has been told of that day.
Stack, 58, had served almost 33 years. His funeral will be held Friday on Long Island, with the expansive pageantry and huge turnout of firefighters and officers that accompany all departmental ceremonies.
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