Firefighter
Michael Ragusa
Engine 279
WAKE AND FUNERAL SERVICE
FOR FF MICHAEL P. RAGUSA
A Wake and Funeral Service will be offered to honor the memory
of Firefighter Michael P. Ragusa of Engine Company 279, who
made the supreme sacrifice on September 11, 2001.
Details
are:
Wake:
McManus Funeral Home, 4601 Ave N
Date: Sunday September 7, 2003
Viewing Hours: 2:00pm to 4:30pm and 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Funeral:
St. Bernards Church, 2055 East 69th Street, Brooklyn
Date: Monday September 8, 2003
Time: 9:30am
All
off duty members and their families are invited to attend
as a mark of respect to the deceased.
What Would Mikey Do?
Michael
Paul Ragusa was not a mountain climber, a sculptor, a scholar. He was not
anything like that, his loved ones say. Being a fireman was enough
for him. "He did things to make others happy," said his fiancée, Jennifer
Trapani. "That's how he made himself happy." Mike Ragusa, 29, joined the
Fire Department nearly two years ago. He was assigned to Engine Company 250,
but was working at Engine Company 279 on Sept. 11. He was single-minded,
said his sister, Christine Saladeen. "If we all lined up outside the World
Trade Center and yelled, 'Mikey stop!,' he still would have ran in." When
word of Firefighter Ragusa's disappearance percolated through his neighborhood
of Bergen Beach, Brooklyn, dozens of people camped out on his parents' lawn,
on their patio furniture and on their living room floor. Strangers who did
not know his name came by with fruit baskets to tell of how he helped fix
their fences or change their tires. He may not have been a sculptor, but
he was a plumber, and if a friend's pipe burst at midnight, he was there.
He may not have been a scholar, but he was a good man. His friends had a
saying about him — W.W.M.D.: What Would Mikey Do? Profile published in THE
NEW YORK TIMES on December 25, 2001.
Firehouse.com
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