FIREFIGHTERS LOSE ANOTHER 9/11 HERO - THIS TIME IN THE IRAQ WAR
By MICHAEL WARNER, MURRAY WEISS, DAN KADISON, and MARSHA KRANES
December 1, 2004 --
A hero firefighter who risked his life rescuing his fellow New Yorkers at the World Trade Center has died fighting his country's enemies in Iraq.
Army National Guard Sgt. Chris Engeldrum — a Gulf War veteran and former city cop — was killed by terrorists who detonated a car bomb as he rode in a convoy outside Baghdad on Monday.
Another FDNY firefighter was injured in the cowardly ambush.
Nicknamed "Drum" and known as "the go-to guy" at Ladder Co. 61 in Co-op City, Engeldrum was the first city firefighter to die in Iraq out of the 103 who have been activated since 9/11.
The 39-year-old married father of two gave his life for his country on the 16th birthday of his younger son, friends said.
Firefighter Dan Swift, 24, of Ladder Co. 43 in East Harlem, was in the same Humvee and hit by shrapnel. He was flown to an Army hospital in Germany last night.
At Engeldrum's home in the Edgewater Park section of The Bronx, the slain firefighter's devastated widow, Sharon, sorrowfully but proudly noted that all her husband's jobs were dangerous.
"I was used to it, but I didn't like it," she said. "He just wanted to serve,. He felt an obligation to his guys, whether he was in the Fire Department or the National Guard."
She recalled how she met and fell in love with Engeldrum in 1983, while he was working at his family's gas station in The Bronx.
"I think it was [love at first sight] but we didn't actually get together until a couple of weeks later," Sharon said.
They married four years later, and had two sons — Sean, 18, and Royce, who turned 16 on Monday.
Her husband joined the Army in 1986 and served as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne in the first Gulf War.
He joined the NYPD in 1997, but after two years he was accepted by "his first love," the Fire Department, she said.
On 9/11, he rushed downtown with his fire company, arriving just as the first tower was falling, she said. Later, he helped raise the first flag at Ground Zero on a lamppost.
He was surprised, she said, when he was reactivated by the Army in May.
"He felt he could do something back here," she said. "But they called him up, and he said, 'You gotta do what you gotta do.' "
Her older son, Royce, said his father loved his country. "He didn't have to say it, you just knew it," he said. "He was a great dad, like a TV dad," the shattered teen said. "All the other kids were always eager to come over to our house."
Sharon was moved by a condolence phone call she received yesterday from Mayor Bloomberg.
"He wanted to let me know that he felt safer knowing there were men like my husband protecting his streets and protecting us from terrorists," she said. He also told her something she already knew — that her husband was "a New York hero."
Her mother, Madeline, described her son-in-law as "very loving and very giving, both as a husband and as a father," and said his fellow firefighters were "like his extended family."
"While he was in Iraq, 25 came over to his house to build a shed at the rear of the property — a hangout for the boys," she said.
At the Co-op City firehouse, his friend and colleague Mike Schiraldi recalled the visit — it was called "Project Engeldrum," he said.
"We all went to his home to put on a new roof and do some renovation work," Schiraldi said.
Yesterday, Engeldrum's grief-stricken colleagues at Ladder 61 draped his helmet and bunker jacket atop an American flag on the rear wall of the firehouse.
Outside, over the front doors, they took down a banner that proudly declared "We Support Our Troops, FR [Firefighter] Engeldrum, L-61 now serving" and replaced it with black and purple bunting.
Under a flag flying at half-staff, they set up a makeshift memorial — with a portrait of their fallen brother, candles, vases of flowers and a framed flag that had been sent to Engeldrum in 2002 by his Army buddies in the 101st Airborne, who were serving in Afghanistan.
Engeldrum had mailed the flag to them after 9/11 and they had signed it and sent it back — along with an inscribed message: "Those who don't do battle for their country, don't know with what ease they accept their citizenship in America."
The Post ran a story about the flag at the time — and a picture of Engeldrum and the flag appears on today's front page.
"Anything he did, he did 200 percent," said Schiraldi.
"He was all about the Army, he was all about the Fire Department," added Firefighter Mark Klingner. "He was the core of the firehouse."
Fire Lt. Brian Horton said Engeldrum's wife and kids are putting on a brave front, but "they are devastated."
"He was a great fireman," Horton said. "He was 100 percent soldier. He loved his country and he loved being a fireman.
"He was a lucky man — he got to do what he loved."
Engeldrum, who had nine Army citations, was cited for bravery by the FDNY in July 2000 when he and his company rescued two people from a fire.
As one Ladder 62 firefighter noted, "He was the 344th tragedy of the terrorist attack."
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