Hero firefighter Peter Bielfeld stopped a moment during his dash toward the smoking World Trade Center one year ago today.
He chomped down on his trademark unlit cigar and did something unusual for a courageous veteran: left a note in his locker for his family that said “I will always love you” – as if he knew he might not come back from that burning building.
One year after disappearing into the dust of collapsing Tower 1, the 44-year-old Bielfeld was buried yesterday following a funeral service that drew more than 2,000 firefighters from around the region.
A sea of uniformed firefighters, family and pipe and drum corps overtook the streets around St. Anselm’s Church in the Mott Haven section of The Bronx, the neighborhood Bielfeld protected for 19 years as part of FDNY Ladder 42.
“There’s nothing I can ever say that really expresses the gratitude we have for those who died on 9/11,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a eulogy. “I just hope . . . that in 90 years Brittany tells the world what her father did for New York,” he added, referring to Bielfeld’s 17-month-old daughter.
Bielfeld’s father, Ernest Bielfeld, said the family made a good-bye to their son – who organized Christmas plays and fund-raisers in the neighborhood – during a memorial last November, but remains found among the rubble were finally identified in May as Bielfeld’s.
“He loved his job and he was dedicated. This was his life’s work and his duty,” the elder Bielfeld said. “He dearly loved his family.”
Peter Bielfeld was born in Germany, where his father was stationed on a U.S. Army base. The family moved to The Bronx in 1960 and Peter attended St. Michael’s HS. He excelled at the University of Delaware in both academics and football, Ernest said.
Peter was injured two days before Sept. 11 during a difficult fire in a five-story Bronx building, but the injured shoulder didn’t stop him from doing what he lived to do when the call for help came from the trade center.
A day before his death, on Sept. 10 of last year, Peter was with the rest of the crew at a dedication of their renovated Prospect Avenue station, said FDNY Lt. Joe Berry.
After more than a year away from that “home,” Bielfeld and the guys were looking forward to competitive games of checkers and rounds of laughs over meals back at the station.
“He was a person you could count on when the chips were down,” Berry said. “As a fireman you couldn’t ask for a more dedicated person.”
FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said “one reason he is so missed was his tremendous ability to conquer life’s challenges and inspire others to do the same. Firefighters like Peter have inspired us all.”
Engine Co. 73, which is housed at the Prospect Avenue station with Ladder 42, lost three heroes last Sept. 11: Lieutenants Ray Murphy and Brian Ahearn and Battalion Commander Joseph Marchbanks.
* These names were added yesterday to the medical examiner’s list of confirmed dead in the World Trade Center attacks:
Gerard Baptiste, 35; Mark Francis Broderick, 40; Thomas Edward Hynes, 28; Lukasz Tomasz Milewski. 21.
IN MEMORIAM
Firefighter Peter Beilfeld
Ladder 42
Survived by wife Theresa Clarner; 17-month-old daughter Brittany; father Ernest; mother Hilde