by STEVE DUNLEAVY
The mother of the rookie firefighter and Iraqi war veteran tragically killed in a Bronx discount-store fire said yesterday her son died "doing what he loved." "Perhaps, maybe strange to say, but everything happens for a purpose," Monica Reilly said of the death Sunday of her son, Michael, 25. Monica could not put into words the depth of her sorrow. "Nobody knows how sadly missed he will be," she told The Post. By her side was her younger son, Kevin, who turns 18 today. Hundreds of firefighters turned out for the wake of Reilly, a Marine reservist, at the Van Emburgh Sneider funeral home in Ramsey, N.J. Reilly, who joined the FDNY in July, lay in an open casket, decked out in his blue uniform with white gloves and his hat in his hand. Monica and her husband, Michael, got a salute from 50 firefighters in dress blue as they entered the funeral home. Debbie Carpluk, the wife of Lt. Howard Carpluk, also killed in the blaze, visited the wake and spent 15 minutes talking privately with the Reilly family. At the fire lieutenant's home in Yaphank, L.I., one of his three sisters, Cathy Farrell, choked back tears as she said, "Howie was our rock. He was my hero long before he became a fireman. I wish there could be more like him. We all do."
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