DOUGLAS WIGHT
New York Post Online
December 14, 2001 -- If he wasn't out fighting fires, Capt. Vincent Brunton was usually pouring beers at his local tavern, Farrells in Brooklyn.
Yesterday, the bar in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood was closed out of respect, as a moving memorial service was held just yards up the street for 43-year-old Brunton - missing after the World Trade Center attacks.
Brunton - Vinnie to his pals - had raced to the south tower with his team from Ladder Co. 105 in Brooklyn when the building collapsed.
His firefighter brother Tommy, 44, a bagpiper with Brooklyn Engine Co. 310, has played at countless memorials and funerals for his fallen comrades. Yesterday it was his turn to pay tribute to his much-loved brother at Holy Name Church on Prospect Park West.
Choking back tears, Tommy said: "To use the common vernacular of the Brooklyn neighborhood, Vinnie was a stand-up-guy - with an honesty beyond reproach and respected by all who knew him."
Tommy told how, in 1992 after Vincent got a medal for saving a handicapped woman from a blaze, his pals celebrated by putting a congratulatory message on the scoreboard at Yankee Stadium.
"Even after receiving his medal, Vinnie got a bigger charge from seeing his name on that scoreboard," he said.
Mayor Giuliani said: "If Sept. 11 had never happened, he would have been a hero anyway - both as a firefighter and as a man."
Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen paid tribute to Brunton's leadership qualities and said that only exceptional captains went back to lead the company from which they were promoted.
He said Brunton's name would be among those inscribed on the pillars of a new fire academy.
"As someone who felt so strongly about training," he said, "I'm sure that would mean a lot to him."
Attending the Mass were Vincent's wife, Cathy, their children, Kelly, 22, and Tommy, 20, his other brother Michael, 43, also a firefighter, and sister Maryann Deluise.
Related:
