Hundreds of firefighters silently stood at attention yesterday, facing Miller Memorial Baptist Church in North Philadelphia as pallbearers loaded Lt. Derrick T. Harvey's casket onto an Engine 72 firetruck.
Although the firefighters filled the entire church block of North 22nd Street near Oxford, the only sound in the frigid air was police-and-firefighter bagpipers' otherworldly rendition of "Amazing Grace."
When it ended, Engine 72, escorted by a long line of fire units from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland, carried Harvey to Mount Lawn Cemetery in Sharon Hill.
The 45-year-old Olney resident succumbed last week to severe burns suffered when a floor collapsed while he was fighting a Logan rowhouse fire.
"It wouldn't surprise me if he gave his life to save others," said Martin McCall, a fire medic who worked alongside Harvey for years at Engine 59, Ladder 18, Medic 4 at 22nd Street and Hunting Park Avenue.
"It wouldn't surprise me if God said to him, 'You can live, but I'm going to have to let someone else go.' And Derrick said, 'No. You take my life instead.' That's the type of person he was."
Harvey was also an awesome cook, McCall said, whose firehouse specialties included pineapple upside-down cake, salmon stuffed with crab and his signature dish: meat mountain.
"He'd bake meatloaf with ham and cheese," McCall said, pausing to remember the overwhelming richness of that concept.
"We knew not to eat anything on days when Derrick was making meat mountain. We'd say, 'Make sure everybody has their own roll of toilet paper 'cause we are going to need it after meat mountain.' "
McCall laughed heartily, paying tribute to a lighter side of Harvey that was as much a part of him as his tough, compassionate devotion to duty.
"He was best man at my wedding," McCall said. "He taught me about being a man, about respecting the old ways as well as the new. I'm 30. He was 45. When I met him six years ago, I was so young.
"He helped me with everything, and when I told him he didn't have to do all that for me, he'd say, 'Shut up, kid. You're with me.' I am going to miss him so much."
So will hundreds of mourners who filled the wooden pews in the sunlight streaming through stained glass windows as Harvey lay in his coffin with his yellow Engine 72 firefighter's helmet.
Lt. Tom O'Drain, president of Philadelphia Fire Fighters' Union Local 22, said, "All that we can do with the gift of life is to hope we can make a difference." And Harvey certainly did that, most recently preparing the 177th Fire Cadet Class of '03 for active duty.
Deputy Chief Edwin J. Grugan, director of the Philadelphia Fire Academy, said Harvey was magnetic "and his smile, well, it just lit the room up. I look around this house of worship and feel he made all of us feel special at one time or another."
"May God bless and welcome Derrick," said Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Harold Hairston.
"May God provide him all the safety that he tried to give us," said Sharif Street, on behalf of his father, Mayor Street, who was attending a family funeral.
The congregation said, "Amen." It was time to go outside for the silence, broken only by "Amazing Grace."
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