“There is no single hero’s story,” Port Authority cop George Howard once said after helping hundreds escape the mayhem in the 1993 Twin Towers attack.
“Everybody just did his job. That’s what they pay us for.”
His words proved prophetic when he paid dearly, with his life, in last week’s more deadly attack.
Like hundreds of others, Howard, 45 – one of six cops and firefighters buried yesterday – was off-duty when he heard of the terror assault, hopped into his car to race to the site, and later died in the rubble.
Others laid to rest yesterday were:
* Fellow PA Officer Dominick Pezzulo, whose weeping 7-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter reduced the toughest among the city’s Finest to sobbing masses at his Bronx funeral. The youngsters struggled to keep on their hero dad’s police hats as his casket went by.
On a day just before the tragedy, the Rev. Donald Dwyer said, he was joking around with Dominick Jr. outside church.
“So, you’re a tough guy?” he teased the little boy.
Without missing a beat, the child responded, “No. But my daddy is.”
Pezzulo, 36, initially escaped the killer collapse of the towers. But when he realized the two other cops he was with were trapped, he went back for them. He helped them escape, only to be killed by falling debris.
Stricken co-workers wrapped his broken body in the American flag before carrying it from the wreckage.
* Firefighter Timothy Haskell, 34, whose brother, Capt. Thomas Haskell, is still missing.
The overwhelming grief dealt to just one family prompted the Rev. Steven Camp of St. William the Abbot Church in Seaford, L.I., to address a question he’s been asked dozens of times since the tragedy:
“Where is God?”
“God did not will this . . . It is the complete absence of the presence of God that caused these acts to happen, and we are left to bear the scars,” Camp said.
Haskell’s other firefighter brother, Kenneth, said the family holds out hope for finding their-still missing brother.
“I’m sure we’ll find Tommy. But I’m not concerned, because I know Timmy’s sitting by his side right now,” he said.
* Firefighter John Santore, one of two of members of Staten Island’s Ladder Co. 5 buried on the same day – and honored in a personal letter from President Bush.
“All of America mourns with you,” the president wrote to the families of Santore, a father of two, and Louis Arena.
Friends recalled some of the gifts that Santore, 49, gave to his community – coaching local kids and helping to build a museum dedicated to local famed maritime artist John Noble.
Once asked why he volunteered at the museum, Santore said: “I do this for my kids. I want to bring them here years from now and say, ‘I helped do this.'”
* Firefighter Arena, 27, whose funeral started late so that shaken colleague’s at Santore’s funeral could rush across town to make it. Arena died when a building collapsed while he was trying to rescue a woman in a wheelchair.
During the service, his widow, Wanda, clutched her husband’s helmet, their 4-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son sitting on either side of her.
Ladder 5 firefighter Greg Wasserman said he and Arena frequently sat up late at the firehouse talking about their families.
“We all become firefighters to help people. Louis stood out because of his dedication,” Wasserman said. “There was never a task too hard or a broken part he couldn’t fix.”
* Fire Capt. Walter Hynes, a beloved 46-year-old Rockaways fixture.
Hynes grew up with some odds against him: His father died when he was a teen, and he was left to take care of his mom and grandmother.
After joining the FDNY, he still worked his way through law school.
“We’re not here because Walter died,” the Rev. William Sweeney told hundreds of mourners at St. Francis de Sales Church in Belle Harbor. “We’re here because he lived.”
IN MEMORIAM
LOUIS ARENA, 27
FDNY Firefighter, Staten Island
Survived by his wife, Wanda, and children Nina, 4, and Joseph, 3
TIMOTHY HASKELL, 34
FDNY Firefighter, Long Island
Survived by his mother, Maureen, brothers Kenneth and Kevin, sister Dawn Haskell-Carbone and girlfriend Gabrielle Sanders. His firefighter brother Thomas Jr. remains missing.
GEORGE HOWARD, 45
Port Authority policeman, Long Island
Survived by his mother, Arlene, and two sons.
WALTER HYNES, 46
FDNY Captain, Queens
Survived by his wife, Veronica, and daughters Caitlin, 12, Kerry, 11, and Deirdre, 8.
DOMINICK PEZZULO, 36
Port Authority policeman, Bronx
Survived by his wife, Jenette, son Dominick Jr., 7, and daughter Gianna, 4
JOHN SANTORE, 49
FDNY Firefighter, Staten Island
Survived by his wife, Frances, and daughters Mirjana, 19, and Tiana, 13.