Chicago Tribune
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While the world watched in horror as the Twin Towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, Chicago firefighter David Meyer packed up his gear and drove to the scene of the deadly terror attacks.
No one invited or ordered him to do so. But for days, Meyer stayed in New York, digging and searching for victims buried under the rubble.
The fire captain and father of four was remembered for always embodying this kind of bravery and selflessness during his funeral service Tuesday at St. John Brebeuf Church in Niles. The nearly 30-year veteran firefighter died last week after battling a suspicious garage fire in the Austin neighborhood.
“God put him on this earth so he could do God’s very work. And he did it well and he lived it fully,” said the Rev. Thomas Mulcrone, former chaplain for the Chicago Fire Department, during the eulogy. “There is a time to live and a time to die. We can’t make sense today of the latter. But we can honor Dave, if we abide by the former.”
Hundreds of firefighters mourned their fallen colleague at the service, some filling the pews of the church, others standing outside, shoulder to shoulder, in solemn silence. A funeral procession of multiple fire engines, one adorned with wreaths of flowers and funeral sprays, passed under a large American flag suspended by two fire truck ladders that formed an arch.
Bright-red bows decorated trees and signposts lining the procession route along Milwaukee Avenue and Harlem Avenue, in the firefighter’s honor.
A Chicago flag covered Meyer’s wood coffin.
The 54-year-old had served as a captain of Truck 29 and spent most of his career on the West Side.
Around 4 a.m. Wednesday, Meyer responded to a garage fire in the 5500 block of West Crystal Street. The blaze was extinguished, but Meyer was critically injured when the roof of the garage collapsed on him. Later that morning, he was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital.
Charles Green, 44, of the Austin neighborhood faces first-degree murder and aggravated arson charges in connection with the fire and Meyer’s death. On Saturday, Green was ordered detained by a judge during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, where firefighters and paramedics filled the courtroom to support their fellow firefighter.
“(Meyer) understood that the badge is more than just a symbol: It’s a promise,” Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said during the funeral service. “A promise to stand between danger and safety. And to put others first, even at great personal risk. In the end, David kept that promise, as he always did.”
Meyer is survived by his wife, four children, one grandchild and his parents, according to his obituary, which noted that “his devotion to his family was known to all who met him.”
He was married to his wife Kristen for more than 30 years. He met her at age 16, when they attended Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago.
The couple had one son, Michael, and three daughters, Haley, Alyssa and Kaitlyn.
The children “were and are the most precious things in (Meyer’s) life,” Mulcrone said, noting that the father would do anything for his kids.
When Meyer’s daughters were little, they decided to paint their nails one day, Mulcrone recounted at another point during the eulogy.
“So the girls said to David, ‘let us do your nails,’” the priest said. “You can imagine what he was thinking. He said ‘no, but you can do my toes.’ And so they did.”
The next day, Meyer was on shift. He came back from a fire, soaking wet, and changed his clothes in the locker room. Then he took off his socks.
“And there they were, 10 hot pink digits,” the priest said, eliciting laughs from the pews. “And you know, firefighters and paramedics are merciless when it comes to the foibles of their co-workers, so I imagine that was probably the longest day Dave ever had in a firehouse.”
Loved ones remembered Meyer as a dedicated family man — and a constant prankster with a great sense of humor.
His son Michael joked that his father wanted to name him Harley, so everyone would say, “‘Hey, that’s Harley, David’s son,” he said, referencing the company Harley-Davidson and his dad’s love of riding motorcycles.
His daughter, Alyssa, recalled how her father would attend all of her skating competitions, bringing her flowers in one hand and her favorite Starbucks drink in the other.
Meyer joined the Chicago Fire Department in 1996, where he “discovered a new meaning and purpose in his life,” Mulcrone said.
Over the next three decades, Meyer mastered the art and science of firefighting, serving on “some of the busiest and best companies in this city,” the priest added.
Battalion Chief Joel Burns told the crowd that “there’s an elephant in the room we never talk about.”
“Anybody sitting out here that wears a badge, the families that love them and support them, know about it. But we don’t talk about it,” he said. “The elephant is that on any morning, when we say goodbye, it might be exactly that. The last time we ever say goodbye. Dave knew it. We know it.”
Burns said that his wife always knew that if anything happened to him, she should “go to Dave.”
“Because Dave was a fixer. No matter what it was,” Burns said, adding that Meyer was an exceptional builder and mechanic.
Burns recalled once he was out of town during a snowstorm and his mother-in-law was watching his house; Meyer came to the home to shovel. On another occasion, a niece of his ran out of gas near Meyer’s home; Meyer brought gas to her car and then followed her to a gas station, giving her money so she had enough fuel for the ride home, Burns recounted.
“Dave was also a giver,” he said. “He was a giver of his talents. He was a giver of his time. He was a giver of his home.”
On Christmas Eve, “if you didn’t have a place to go, you go to Dave and Kristen’s house,” Burns added. “He would open his home to you. You were welcome like you were family. And that’s a very rare thing to find.”
The service culminated outside the church with a Chicago Fire Department bell-ringing ceremony.
Firefighters lining the perimeter stood and saluted in Meyer’s honor. Three bells rang. Then three more. Then five more.
The 3-3-5 sequence signals that firefighters have returned to the firehouse following a call.
After the last bell, the Fire Department declared that Meyer “has returned home.”
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