''He was supporting four kids - he had a daughter from his first marriage in Florida - and he needed to make a decent living. ''He loved computers, but he really went into computer programming because of the money,'' his sister said. A co-worker, Roselyn Braud, praised him for leading her to safety before disappearing back into the building. He was in class when the first plane hit, but then he sprinted to the trade center's underground command station. ''He was to graduate in three weeks, with a certificate in computer programming,'' his sister said. Afterward, he worked the 3-to-11 shift as a $10.51-an-hour security guard at the World Trade Center. He left his Bronx home at 7 each morning, arriving downtown an hour later for six hours of computer classes. By that, she meant her 36-year-old brother, Esmerlin Salcedo, was spending so much time at school and at work that he rarely saw his three young children, Amber, 5, Kayla, 4, and Markos, 1. ''He said he was sacrificing for the future,'' said Raysa Rodriguez. Van Laere in the basket of a 60-foot boom atop a truck, feeding water down onto the flames.

On the wall of his mother's house hangs a photo of a raging fire in a lumber yard. Van Laere, 46, was a risk analyst and underwriter at Aon Insurance, inspecting big buildings and resorts and writing reports on their fire safety.īut he never moved out of Glen Rock, where he bought a house and lived with his fiance, and his family still remembers him as a local hero. He was simply putting in another day at the office. Van Laere did not go to the trade center on Sept. Soon he was teaching rescue courses at the Bergen County Fire Academy.īut Mr. He loved the whole aspect of it - the trucks, the equipment, the potential of fighting fires and helping people.''Īt 18, Daniel Van Laere became a Glen Rock firefighter. Van Laere's brother, Paul, ''and I guess it just captured Dan's imagination. ''We grew up seeing Bobby Barton running off to fires all the time,'' said Mr. When Daniel Van Laere was a kid in Glen Rock, N.J., his hero was a neighbor who was a volunteer firefighter. And a brother, to two sisters and to Michael, who still proudly remembers his schoolyard nickname: ''Little Bernard.'' The rest of the time he was a husband, a son, a father, a coach in his Roman Catholic parish's youth-basketball league. On weekdays, Bernard Pietronico, who was 37, was a corporate bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald. That's something that I thought was an exceptional thing.'' ''I just watched him rise up through the ranks and make a wonderful career for himself and be a great provider for his family. ''He began losing his hair, and so I decided I would too,'' Michael Pietronico joked, before turning serious. Bernard married, had two children, and moved to Old Bridge, N.J.

Bernard got a job on Wall Street, then so did Michael. Bernard played basketball for Hudson Catholic High School, then so did Michael.

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