marjvke.50mets.coM: http://marjvke.50megs.com/DanielBrethel.html Families mourn firefighters lost in collapse By Erik Holm STAFF WRITER September 18, 2001 Seeing the firefighters run past him in lower Manhattan last Tuesday, Capt. Daniel Brethel shouted out a warning. "Firemen will die here today," he said. "Don't let it be you." But it was Brethel, 44, who was among those who perished when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsed. He died when he pulled fellow firefighter Michael Weinberg under a truck as the towers came down. The force of the collapse on the truck crushed them both. Yesterday, Weinberg's family and firefighters said goodbye at Our Lady of Hope Roman Catholic Church in Middle Village, while Brethel's family and colleagues held a funeral for the decorated 22-year veteran at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in North Merrick. Another firefighter, Lt. Glenn Wilkinson, of Bayport, was given a fireman's farewell at his funeral in Blue Point. Full honor guards met the firefighters' caskets outside each ceremony, as bagpipers played plaintive music. In North Merrick, trucks' raised ladders formed a passage down Merrick Avenue for Brethel's funeral procession. The service was held in the same church where Brethel had been baptized, where he had received his first Communion, where he had been married. But in between those milestones, Brethel spent his childhood days dreaming of becoming a firefighter. His family has a home video of him in a firefighter's hat at age 5, and as a teen he used to follow the East Meadow fire trucks when they went on a call. Later, Brethel realized his dream, and rose through the ranks. His men called him "Captain Dan." "I am sure he will be called Captain Dan again when he commands the fallen firefighters who perished on that tragic day," said one of the firefighters, a longtime friend who spoke at his service. In Middle Village, the neighborhood fell silent as the pipe band played a tune for Weinberg known by its signature line, "Will ye no come back again?" Even the mechanics across the street at a Sunoco station stopped what they were doing to watch as the funeral procession left the church. Newsday