Firefighter James Riches
Engine 4

Laid to Rest
on April 12, 2002

On most Friday and Sunday nights for the past 2 1/2 years, James C. Riches had tended bar at Canteena in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. "Everyone loved him," said Allison Kenny, one of the owners. "People would call ahead of time to ask if Jimmy was working that night. He always had a joke ready. All the girls loved him." Riches, 29, had been a firefighter for only about 18 months when the attack on the World Trade Center occurred. He previously had spent eight years as a police officer in Brooklyn South Narcotics, said his brother, Timmy. "He was temporarily assigned to Engine Co. No. 4," Timmy said. "They were summoned to the Trade Center, and he's been missing since." Riches was born in Victory Memorial Hospital in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and went to St. Francis Xavier High School in Manhattan. In 1989, Riches received a basketball scholarship to Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C., and joined the NYPD afterward. At Canteena in the days after the terrorist attack, a banner with photos and messages honoring Riches hung outside the bar. "He's going to be missed," Kenny said.

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