By Alexander Dworkowitz
Thomas Casoria, the Whitestone firefighter who loved his job so much that his wardrobe was said to consist only of FDNY T–shirts, was mourned by hundreds at St. Luke’s Roman Catholic Church on Clintonville Street Friday.
Serving in Engine Co. 22 in Manhattan, Casoria died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. In a radio contact minutes before the towers’ collapse, he was heard carrying down the body of paraplegic along with other firefighters.
“He did what came natural to someone with a heart like his,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the funeral service in the packed St. Luke’s.
Casoria, who grew up in Whitestone, died just a month before his wedding.
For seven months, work crews combed Ground Zero, finding no sign of Casoria. But just as his family was beginning to lose hope his body was found in April. A firefighter in a family of firefighters, his relatives in the FDNY were called in and removed his body from the site.
In speaking of Casoria at the funeral, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani remembered his thoughts at the first firefighter funeral he had attended just months after taking office.
“I started to think, where do we get men like this? Where do we get men who walk into fires?” Giuliani asked. “Where do they come from?”
Giuliani turned to the Casoria family.
“And I think I know the answer,” he said. “They come from families like yours.”
Carlo Casoria Jr. recalled his childhood growing up with Thomas, his younger brother.
He remembered Thomas Casoria’s many nicknames, such as “Gutters,” earned because “he had such thick eyebrows that they acted as gutters when he sweat.”
With two siblings and many older cousins, Thomas Casoria quickly learned how to stand his ground in a large extended family.
“Being the youngest of all, he got teased a lot,” Carlo Casoria Jr. said. “But the thing is he seemed to thrive on all the teasing he got because he would give it right back.”
Carlo Casoria Jr., who also served as a firefighter, told the congregation about his own rare muscle disorder, which forced him off the job and sent him to the hospital for surgery.
After the procedure, Thomas Casoria escorted his injured brother as they marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
“He wanted me to feel like I was still part of the department,” Carlo Casoria said, speaking of their marching in the parade, as he held back tears. “He practically carried me the whole way.”
Anthony Marden, a firefighter who searched night and day for the remains of his cousin, remembered his good friend as a fierce competitor.
“He would dive head first into a wall in a friendly game of ping- pong,” he said. “Making a good play was always worth a few scrapes.”
Terry Lanzisero, Thomas Casoria’s fiancée, had a letter of hers read at the funeral.
“On Sept. 11, 2001, I lost my entire world,” she wrote.
Lanzisero recalled meeting her fiancé in a College Point restaurant in 1995.
“We hit it off wonderfully,” she wrote. “Tommy was funny, handsome and a great person to talk to.”
The ceremony concluded with Carlo Casoria, Thomas’s father, speaking of his lost son.
Carlo Casoria remembered the sport’s prowess of his son, the star shortstop of the FDNY softball team.
“In my life, I saw a few thousand softball games,” he said. “He was the best I ever saw.”
Carlo Casoria added his son was popular with almost everyone he met.
“Most of us loved him,” Carlo Casoria said. “I certainly did. And we will all miss him very much.”
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
