Hundreds of family, friends and New York’s Bravest gathered Thursday at the wake of slain FDNY firefighter and US Marine Staff Sgt. Christopher Slutman.
Throngs of firefighters in their dress blues lined the streets outside of the Joseph A. Lucchese Funeral Home in The Bronx to honor the 43-year-old hero who was killed when a Taliban roadside bomb went off in Afghanistan earlier this month.
Firefighters outside the funeral home stood tall and saluted Slutman’s widow, Shannon, before the service got underway.
Scores of mourners filed into the funeral home to pay their respects to Slutman’s family as his casket laid draped in an American flag and flanked with a portrait of him and an FDNY member on both sides.
Slutman, a father of three young daughters who worked at Ladder 27 in the Claremont section of the Bronx and was a decorated 15-year veteran of the FDNY, was among three US servicemen killed in the explosion on April 8.
FDNY Lt. Jack Meara, who worked in the same firehouse as Slutman, called him a “tremendous fireman, tremendous solider and a great friend of ours.
“Nobody has better character than Chris Slutman,” Meara said, adding, “Chris was the kind of fireman that we need in New York City fire department or in any fire department.”
FDNY member Dan Richter, another firefighter who worked with Slutman, said that Slutman’s three children — McKenna, Kenley and Weslynn — “have a lot more family members through this and that will never change.
“Chris was one of the most knowledgeable guys of the job that I ever worked with,” he added. “He always felt there was something to learn and some better way to do our jobs.”
The last time either Meara or Richter saw Slutman was when the firehouse had a going away party for him before his deployment.
“Never did we think that he wasn’t gonna return — and we knew he was in a danger zone, but you don’t think it’s going to happen to your guy,” said Meara. “Off he went and we were looking forward to having him back. But he’s always with us.”
Slutman’s funeral will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church on West 53rd Street in Manhattan.
