NY Times

The blue was worn by thousands of firefighters from as far away as Massachusetts, gathering to stand at attention at a firefighter's funeral.

The tide moved slowly. At the corner of Islip Avenue and Main Street, it passed two ladder trucks holding aloft an American flag almost three stories tall that snapped in the gusting wind.

Some firefighters wore white caps, denoting senior rank, like that of Lt. Howard J. Carpluk Jr., a decorated 20-year veteran of the Fire Department of New York.

It was Lt. Carpluk's funeral Saturday that provided the culmination of nearly a week of mourning for his death and that of Michael C. Reilly, a rookie firefighter. And it comes days before another period of public anguish in which the Fire Department is also center stage: the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, when 343 firefighters perished after the terrorist attack.

Lt. Carpluk, 43, died Monday from injuries suffered while fighting a Bronx fire last Sunday. The 1,134th firefighter to die in the line of duty, he was among the first to burst into a burning store not far from his firehouse.

When the floor collapsed, Lt. Carpluk was trapped alongside Firefighter Reilly, 25, who died later that day. His funeral was on Friday.

There was a grand and simple pageantry to Lt. Carpluk's funeral at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Main Street here.

It was in the way a fire truck, lights flashing, carried the lieutenant's rain-soaked coffin to the church; the bagpipes' lament and the muffled thrum of the big drums; in the way the mayor, the fire commissioner, and Lt. Carpluk's fellow firefighters of Engine 42 eulogized the lieutenant's deftness as a firefighter and his humor as a man; and in the way the lieutenant's widow invoked the healing power of memory.

But the events of the day were also underlined in smaller gestures. As the blue tide of firefighters swept through Islip Avenue, at times in large groups, at times in twos and threes, a man and his two sons, the youngsters' shoulders barely past their father's knees, stopped on a sidewalk and stared.

A fatherly whisper followed, and the two boys saluted the firefighters.

And the day was also told by firefighters not from New York. When Artie Brown, 36, a Massachusetts firefighter, used to work with Engine Company 42 in Boston, they would play softball with Lt. Carpluk's unit, Engine Company 42 in the Bronx.

"It didn't matter whether he played darts or softball, Howie was very competitive," said Firefighter Brown, smiling and now with Engine Company 50 in Boston. "So I'm here to support a fallen brother."

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in his eulogy, "Howie was a hero from his first day on the job to his very last. Eighteen years ago as a young firefighter, he ran into a burning building and dragged two unconscious men out to safety, risking his own life in the process."

Lt. Carpluk, then with Ladder 31 and a member of its forcible entry team, received a 1988 commendation for "quick, courageous action" in the Bronx rescue.

There was laughter to go along with the admiration. "To the probies," or first-year firefighters, Mayor Bloomberg continued, "Howie was not only a first-rate role model and teacher, but he was a friend and an older brother.

And, of course, like many an older brother, he wasn't above a practical joke or two.

"In Engine 42, it wasn't uncommon to answer a phone and find it covered with peanut butter or to wake up from a nap and find out that your eyeglasses had been painted over. Or, the one I like, that your fingernails had been lacquered a lovely shade of pink."

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta added, "He was the bridge between the old and the new in the house. He had 20 years in the job so understandably his probies were pretty impressed that he knew who Puff Daddy was."

The lieutenant's widow, Debra Carpluk, 42, who met him at East Islip High School when she was a cheerleader, thanked the assembled firefighters and dignitaries on behalf of the lieutenant's twin sisters, Cathy and Crissy, 37; and the couple's children, Bradley, 14, and Paige, 10.

"Please," Mrs. Carpluk said, "I'd love to hear as many Howie stories as I can. May our memories help us all."