New Sign Honors Fallen 9/11 Firefighter
Herald Online 8/13/09
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Using a radio scanner and his bicycle, a 12-year-old Daniel Brethel was almost always the first at the scene of a fire. Eventually his parents told him to cool it, worried that people would become suspicious that the boy was starting the fires himself. |
That was one of
several stories told on Vincent Drive in East Meadow last
Saturday, where a tight-knit group of neighbors reunited for a
special weekend that began with a street rededication ceremony
in honor of Brethel, a New York City firefighter who perished
eight years ago in the World Trade Center attacks.
Dozens of family members and friends, young and old, joined
elected officials and firefighters at the corner of Vincent
Drive and Front Street to unveil an honorary street sign that
read Capt. Daniel J. Brethel Dr.
For Loretta Brethel Feret, who now owns the Vincent Drive home
in which she grew up with brother Daniel and three other
siblings, the sign will serve as a pleasant reminder of her lost
loved one. "Not a day goes by that I don't think about Daniel,"
Feret said. "Now, each time I look up at the street sign, I'll
smile."
Brethel, who lived in Farmingville with his wife, Carol, and two
daughters, Kristin and Meghan, was finishing his shift as
captain at Ladder Company No. 24 in midtown Manhattan as the
events of 9/11 began to unfold. The 43-year-old never made it
home. He is believed to have grabbed a fellow firefighters as
one of the towers collapsed and dived under a truck, where the
two were crushed.
Protecting a colleague would not have been out of character for
Brethel. His brother David recalled a day in Daniel's early
years as a city firefighter when he came home with severe burns
on his neck and ears. Called to a fire, Daniel had removed his
helmet and used it to shield an injured firefighter until
medical personnel arrived.
"Daniel had two families, his firefighters and his personal
family," David Brethel said. "He was clearly a husband and
father first. His wide smile would only widen when he spoke
about his family."
Brethel's path to becoming a firefighter began when he was a
child. His siblings recalled 4-year-old Daniel sporting a red
helmet and playing with fire trucks on Christmas morning. As a
pre-teen working his first job, a newspaper route, he saved
enough money to buy a police scanner, and that was when he began
chasing - and often beating - fire trucks to the scenes of fires
on his bike.
The day he turned 18, Daniel marched straight the East Meadow
Fire Department to become a volunteer. At 21 he became a New
York City firefighter. David remembered Daniel requesting one of
the busiest parts of the city to begin his FDNY career. "The
South Bronx was where he wanted to be," David said.
Daniel served 10 years as a volunteer with the East Meadow Fire
Department before settling in Farmingville with Carol, whom he
met while working in a local Sears. In the FDNY, he studied and
worked his way up to captain in Ladder 24.
"Danny successfully meshed his dreams with the real world," said
another brother, Bill, who now lives in Ohio but comes back to
visit at least twice a year.
The afternoon ceremony featured opening remarks from Hempstead
Town Supervisor Kate Murray, Councilman Gary Hudes and county
Legislator Norma Gonsalves, followed by comments by Daniel's
siblings. All four - David, Bill, Loretta and Elizabeth "Betty"
Domino - and their father, David, stood together to unveil the
commemorative red street sign.
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