WILLIAM NEUMAN
Courtesy of The New York Post

NEW YORK, New York -- Jack Lynch’s search didn’t end when the body of his firefighter son, Michael, was found at Ground Zero last week - he was back in the pit yesterday, helping sift the rubble for other men’s sons and daughters.

"I have to stay here," Lynch said near the last pile of debris from the World Trade Center’s south tower, where Michael’s remains were found Thursday.

Lynch, a retired Transit Authority general manager, has formed a powerful bond over the last six months with the fathers of other firefighters killed in the Sept. 11 terror attack.

They gather at Ground Zero nearly every day and together take up the grim search for remains.

Lynch had been down at the site for hours on Thursday before finally calling it a day and heading home around 5 p.m. He walked in the door of his Bronx home and the phone rang. It was Lee Ielpi, one of his close friends from Ground Zero, a retired firefighter whose FDNY son, Jonathan, was recovered in December.

"Lee said to me, ‘Jack, just get in your car and come back. And drive slowly,' " Lynch said. "I knew then that Lee had found him."

By the time he made it to Ground Zero, most of the Lynch family had made their way there, as well, including his wife, Kathleen, a daughter, three sons and Michael’s fiancée, Stephanie Luccinioni

"I went through the whole gamut of emotions in seconds," Lynch said. "Even though it opened up the wounds again, I was so happy to find him. It’s very important that we bury Michael in sacred ground."

Michael, who was 30 and one of 10 children, had been a firefighter for a year and a half.