The funeral for a North Haven Fire lieutenant who died suddenly last week after completing a 38-hour shift was held Thursday morning and hundreds attended, including family, friends, colleagues, firefighters from several departments and local baseball players from the North Haven baseball team.
Anthony DeSimone, 50, collapsed when he returned home last Thursday and was taken to the hospital but couldn’t be revived, North Haven Fire Chief Paul Januszewski said.
The 23-year veteran of the department had been working toward achieving the rank of lieutenant and was on the department's promotion list, according to the fire department.
The North Haven Fire Commission posthumously promoted firefighter DeSimone to lieutenant.
Get Connecticut local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Connecticut newsletters.
The funeral was held at St. Elizabeth of the Trinity Parish at St. Therese Church, 555 Middletown Ave. in North Haven. It started at 10 a.m. Thursday.
“We're supposed to have our time and retired, sitting down talking, reminisce and realizing it was all worth it in the end,” North Haven Fire Chief Paul Januszewski said during the service.
Desimone was involved with numerous civic organizations, including the Knights of Columbus and the North Haven Little League. He is survived by his wife and two children.
“They’ll see to it Pam never has another need that she can’t have fulfilled," Januszewski said. "While nobody can replace the presence of your father, you just got 40-50 fathers that are going to watch over you.”
The North Haven Fire Department said fire departments from area towns would be covering all fire stations so members of the North Haven Fire Department could attend services.
Chief Januszewski said DeSimone was close with fallen firefighter Matthias Wirtz, who died in December after fighting a fire in North Haven. DeSimone carried the urn at Wirtz’s funeral and served as the department liaison for the family.
“Two losses in a short period of time. It's tested our will, crushed our spirits. But it will make us stronger,” the fire chief said.
Thomas Haggerty, of the North Haven Professional Firefighters Association, said everyone will miss DeSimone.
“Celebrate the man he was and the life that he had,” Haggerty said.
