'When he hugged you, you knew he meant it,'
Robert Ryan kin says
Monday, November 24th 2008, 5:34 AM
Two years ago, while he battled a raging Brooklyn inferno, globs of plastic from a melting smoke detector fell onto FDNY Lt. Robert Ryan's neck, causing pain so intense he had to be treated with a fellow firefighter's hose.
The severe burns to Ryan's neck required him to spend weeks in the Staten Island University Hospital Burn Center, and some of his colleagues and relatives wondered if the father of four would have to walk away from the job he loved.
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Ryan never wavered, and his unrelenting love for the FDNY led him back to the firehouse a year later and, early Sunday, placed him in harm's way beneath a burning ceiling on Staten Island.
"Nothing was going to take him out of this job," said his brother-in-law Victor Iacovano, "except for when God called him to His side."
"There was never a bad thing you could say about Bobby Ryan," Iacovano said as he fought back tears.
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"When he hugged you, you knew he meant it," he said. "It's a real loss to this world not to have him in it."
Ryan, 46, was running a hose line toward the flames when a portion of the attic of 39 Van Buren St. collapsed and the shards of burning debris knocked off his mask and oxygen tank.
He died a short time later.
"He was the salt of the Earth, a good guy," said Gerard Harkin, 75, the father of Ryan's wife, Kathleen.
"He was not only a good citizen and a good public servant, but he was a great father," said Harkin, crying. "He was wonderful to his children, wonderful to his family.
"It's terrible," he said. "He was one of the good ones."
Ryan, who lived his entire life on Staten Island, raised two children and two stepchildren with Kathleen and made his home in a modest house just a mile from where his life was tragically taken.
He joined the FDNY 17 years ago, served in all five boroughs and spent the months after the Sept. 11 attacks sifting through the toxic remnants of the World Trade Center, looking for the remains of his uncle and several friends.
"He was a good man [and] he showed courage," said the Rev. Louis Jerome, pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart that Ryan faithfully attended every Sunday.
"He was concerned about others," said Jerome, whose sermon Sunday afternoon was a tribute to the fallen firefighter.
Ryan's commitment to service was fondly remembered by his pastor, who said he worked as a painter and volunteer sports coach at the church.
Ryan also donated money and time to benefit the burn center where he was once a patient and just last week was advertising a holiday toy drive by hanging up flyers in Choices Cafe, where his wife works as kitchen manager.
"This is a true tragedy," Iacovano said. "You always pray for firefighters, but when it happens to your family it's surreal."
Ryan's funeral Mass will be held at Sacred Heart at 11 a.m. Wednesday, FDNY officials said. He then will be laid to rest at St. Peter's Cemetery.
With Barry Paddock
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