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CNN Live At Daybreak

America Recovers: A Firefighter's Funeral

Aired October 01, 2001 - 07:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: More than 300 of New York's bravest were lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Now the city is remembering those who died.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And at every funeral, the bagpipes play, men and women cry and there are the many strangers lending support for lives changed in one horrible moment.

CNN's Maria Hinojosa has the story of one firefighter's funeral.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At first, there is silence. Then slowly, a sad rhythm, the one a firefighter's sister and mother or wife hopes to never hear, the one that makes men hide their eyes so that nobody can see them crying.

So much beauty amid such loss. Lincoln Quappe's funeral one of so many that are drawing strangers, people who learned of his death from a notice in the paper beckoning the public to come help the families mourn.

CAPT. DOUGLAS RILLING, SUFFOLK POLICE DEPARTMENT: I will come to this funeral and every one that my schedule allows me to out of the sheer respect for those people who put themselves in a position to lose their lives in an instant.

HINOJOSA (on camera): So many lost lives, 343 funerals. The mayor has asked the public to please attend. Each loss reaching far beyond the intimacy of family and friends, touching the neighborhoods around the firehouses, drawing total strangers to help buffer the sense of loss.

(voice-over): They stand at attention, the out of town strangers from places like Boston, to honor his smiling daughter Natalie and his youngest, Clint, tiny beneath dad's hat. He was Linc from the fire department's elite rescue two, his squad the future topic of a documentary.

DORRY TOOKER, LINCOLN QUAPPE'S MOTHER: And when we were notified that he was found and he was rescued above another rescue company, which meant that he had climbed higher and faster than the other rescue company, I just knew that that was important to him to get up there to save people ahead of somebody else. That was his life. He just loved being a fireman.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: FDNY, you can all be proud. The bravest gave their lives to save many in the crowd.

HINOJOSA: His brother wrote the song about the youngest brother who dreamed of being a stunt man as a boy, the fearless kid who jumped through a window to see how it would feel. Firefighting was his dream. He remembers his younger brother in that special way that older brothers do.

CHUCK QUAPPE, LINCOLN QUAPPE'S BROTHER: Somewhere in that casket along with him and his uniform and his badge and everything else lies a bottle of Budweiser. I know it.

HINOJOSA: Good memories of Lincoln Quappe, 38 years old.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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