Nearly 15 years after he was killed on 9/11, a fire chief will get the department funeral his family has been waiting for all that time.
The remains of Chief Lawrence Stack of Safety Battalion 1 were never recovered after he died when World Trade Center’s North Tower collapsed, which is why the full honors funeral was never held, FDNY sources said.
But the family held out hope, waiting to have a proper funeral hoping his remains would be found.
But 14 years and nine months later, none were recovered, so the family finally decided to bury two vials of Stack’s blood, taken shortly before his death, fire officials said.
Rank and file firefighters were told of the upcoming funeral on Wednesday and were asked to attend what they consider a “line of duty death funeral.”
The funeral mass will be June 17 at the St. Phillips/St. James Church in St. James, New York.
Stack was just a month away from his 33rd anniversary with the FDNY when he died at the age of 58, an FDNY official said.
He worked in the department’s Safety Command, ensuring operations were safe enough for fellow firefighters to respond to.
On September 11, 2001 Stack was in Brooklyn finishing up work when he heard of the first plane going through the towers, FDNY sources said.
He then witnessed the second plane hitting the towers and stopped what he was doing to respond, FDNY sources said.
Stack spent six years in the Navy before joining the FDNY and had been deployed to Vietnam.
Meanwhile, another 9/11 first-responder, NYPD Chief Michael Glenn, died over the weekend from cancer.
His family will be holding a wake Thursday in Middle Village, Queens at the Hess-Miller Funeral Home.
Glenn’s funeral will be Friday.