You
couldn't tell by looking at him, but Thomas Casoria, his father,
Carlo, said, had one thing that made him a standout athlete and
dedicated firefighter: heart. A "husky" boy known for
his baseball and football prowess, Casoria had a reputation among
family, friends and comrades as a go-to guy, his father said.
"He was amazingly strong and a very good athlete, the kind
of guy that if you needed something done, you could always depend
on him," Carlo Casoria said. Thomas Casoria, 29, of Whitestone,
was winding down his 24-hour tour with Engine Co. 22/Ladder Co.
13 in Manhattan when the terrorists slammed jetliners into the
Twin Towers. Based on accounts he heard, Carlo Casoria said, his
son spent his final minutes on the 20th floor of Tower One. He
had radioed his captain to report that he and two comrades from
his company were carrying a paraplegic out of the towering inferno.
A follow-up call, his father said, indicated he was responding
to a Mayday. Moments later, the tower fell. Four firefighters
from Engine Co. 22, including his son, died in the attacks, Carlo
Casoria said. Casoria's body was recovered April 8, his father
said. He was buried Aug. 9 at St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village.
The senior Casoria said both his sons, Thomas and his older brother,
Carlo, harbored dreams from their teenage years of becoming firefighters.
Inspired in part by their cousin, Anthony Marden, a firefighter
with Ladder 165 in St. Albans, they took the civil service test
together and graduated from the fire academy side by side. Thomas,
who was initially assigned to Engine Co. 22 after he graduated
from the academy in February 1999, served stints on rotation at
Ladder 172 in Brooklyn and Engine 261 in Long Island City. He
rejoined Engine Co. 22 about two months before the attacks. Carlo
said although he was older by more than four years, Thomas refused
to let him and his older neighborhood friends shrug him off. "He
was always able to keep up with us," Carlo said, particularly
when it came to sports. "He just never quit." Carlo
recalled how once during a game of flag football Thomas hobbled
off to the sidelines after getting hit. His team trailed, so Carlo
gestured to Thomas to get back in the game. Grimacing, he joined
his team in the huddle. After hearing the call for a play they'd
run through many times before, Thomas caught the ball about five
yards off the line of scrimmage, his brother said, ran it in for
a touchdown, and then hobbled off the field. "I thought he
was acting," Carlo said of his little brother, "but
when we arrived home, I noticed his ankle was practically purple."
His brother may not have been an actor, but he was quite the impersonator,
Carlo said. No one did a better Ralph Cramden or Ed Norton. He
was such a big fan of mob movies that he could reel off dialogue
as if he'd studied the scripts. "He loved being in the firehouse,
where he had a captive audience in his fellow firefighters,"
Carlo said. "He was a fun guy." Professionally, though,
Casoria was a serious team player, his family said. And his calling
as a firefighter was the perfect setting to show the team player
in him. In many respects, his brother said, he didn't consider
what he did as work. "It was his life."
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