9/11: Remains Of Firefighter Identified

Nearly 12 years after the attacks, officials are painstakingly testing thousands of remains found amid World Trade Center rubble.

        

New York officials have identified the remains of a firefighter who was killed in New York in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Jeffrey Walz has now become the 1,637th victim to be identified among the thousands of remains found in and near the rubble of the World Trade Center.

Nearly a dozen years after the terror attacks, authorities are painstakingly testing and retesting the material as technology becomes more refined.

Nearly 350 firefighters were killed at the World Trade Center

Mr Walz's family recalled how he had called his wife and parents on the morning of the attacks to tell them he had been called into action.

His relatives would never see him again, and now that his remains have been found they have expressed relief.

"We're just very relieved, in some respects, to be finally bringing him home to where he grew up and to put him to rest there," said his brother, Raymond Walz.

"That's some peace."

"We kind of knew this day would come. I guess when it does come, though, it kind of sucks the wind out of your sails," he told the AP news agency.

"You have to absorb something new, and old feelings resurface."
Mr Walz, who had joined the Fire Department of New York in 1992, died in the World Trade Center's north tower. He was 37.

His remains were collected during the initial recovery effort in 2001 and 2002, but they were retested and identified just recently, the medical examiner's office spokeswoman said.

Altogether, 2,753 people perished in the attacks at the World Trade Center, and 343 firefighters were among the victims.

Mr Walz died at the north tower

New identifications are made periodically but are not always made public.
Mr Walz's family decided to let it be made public.

"Maybe it'll give other families hope," his mother Jennie Walz said.