Beyer, Paul

Paul Beyer, Eng. 6 When the first of two planes slammed into the World Trade Center at 8:48 a.m. on Sept. 11, Firefighter Paul M. Beyer was returning from an EMS call to a downtown Manhattan housing project. The 37-year-old lifelong Tottenville resident, like the rest of his Engine Co. 6 crew, was due to finish his shift when the firefighters heard a loud explosion. As they neared One Police Plaza en route to their Beekman Street firehouse, a police officer pointed to the World Trade Center, where billows of smoke were beginning to pour out of the upper floors. Heading to the scene, they picked up William Johnston, who was just starting his shift. Although Mr. Beyer was suffering from excruciating back pain caused by the construction of a new two-family home for his family and mother-in-law that he was working on, he didn’t want to take the day off or let anyone know he was hurt. Concerned for her husband’s health, his wife, Arlene, called the evening before the attack to see how he was feeling. Instead of complaining, Mr. Beyer focused the conversation on the new house and his wife’s apprehension about starting a new job. “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be OK. We don’t need all this stress,” she remembered him reassuringly saying during their last phone call. It was with that same attitude that Mr. Beyer approached the rapidly escalating disaster at the World Trade Center. No matter how bad a situation was, Mr. Beyer was known for trying to keep everyone calm, whether it be with a humorous story or a soothing word. “He was a great fireman,” said his friend, Firefighter Billy Green of Engine Co. 6. “I knew him for eight years and never saw him angry. He was always able to see the good.” A firefighter from another company later told Mrs. Beyer that he was frightened until he looked at the calm determination in her husband’s face. “He had that ‘nothing bothers me, let’s just do it’ look,” she was told. “I saw him on the 9/11 tape [the CBS documentary shot by two French filmmakers, brothers Gedeon and Jules Naudet] and I know that look,” said Mrs. Beyer. “I’m sure they knew how serious the situation was, but he had a responsibility as a fireman.” As Mr. Beyer and three other crew members carried a hose up the stairwell, the building began to shake. Mr. Green last saw his friend on the 31st floor of Tower 1. Their engine, stationed on West and Vesey streets, was equipped with a specially-built pump powerful enough to push water to the top of the 110-story towers. Although crushed in the collapse of Tower 1, that engine will become part of a permanent memorial display in the New York State Museum in Albany this fall. Mr. Green and engine operator Jack Butler, who was manning the Trade Center standpipe, were the only members of the crew to survive. “Ever since I knew him, he was talking about being a fireman,” said Mrs. Beyer who grew up in the same Tottenville community as her husband. “He used to say you could be a fireman slash anything.” In addition to working as a firefighter with Engine Co. 6 for the last eight years, Mr. Beyer also did side work as a welder and paver. From 1989 to 1993, he worked as a machinist with the city Parks Department in Queens. Prior to that, he worked as an apprentice machinist for the former Martin Schall Machine Co., Elm Park. “I saw him on the 9/11 tape [the CBS documentary shot by two French filmmakers, brothers Gedeon and Jules Naudet] and I know that look,” said Mrs. Beyer. “I’m sure they knew how serious the situation was, but he had a responsibility as a fireman.” As Mr. Beyer and three other crew members carried a hose up the stairwell, the building began to shake. Mr. Green last saw his friend on the 31st floor of Tower 1. Their engine, stationed on West and Vesey streets, was equipped with a specially-built pump powerful enough to push water to the top of the 110-story towers. Although crushed in the collapse of Tower 1, that engine will become part of a permanent memorial display in the New York State Museum in Albany this fall. Mr. Green and engine operator Jack Butler, who was manning the Trade Center standpipe, were the only members of the crew to survive. “Ever since I knew him, he was talking about being a fireman,” said Mrs. Beyer who grew up in the same Tottenville community as her husband. “He used to say you could be a fireman slash anything.” In addition to working as a firefighter with Engine Co. 6 for the last eight years, Mr. Beyer also did side work as a welder and paver. From 1989 to 1993, he worked as a machinist with the city Parks Department in Queens. Prior to that, he worked as an apprentice machinist for the former Martin Schall Machine Co., Elm Park. “He didn’t sit still much. He was always working on something,” said Mrs. Beyer. “He was a Mr. Fix-it.” Mr. Beyer’s interest in anything mechanical dated to his childhood when, as his family recalled, he would work on the neighborhood children’s bikes. While attending Tottenville High School, he took numerous automotive shop classes. He graduated in 1981 with a departmental award. When he wasn’t tinkering with cars or tools, Mr. Beyer could often be found helping fellow firefighters with renovation projects around their homes. Those same firefighters — from both his engine company and Battalion 1 — along with other firefighters in the community and friends in the construction trade, have come together to help complete the house that Mr. Beyer started in July just blocks from the family’s current home. “It took me about 10 days to go to the house. It was hard,” said Mrs. Beyer. “Everyone’s been really wonderful. All the work that’s going in there is the best of everyone’s talent. I know that I’ve been truly blessed with this tribute to Paul.” It was a long-held dream of Mr. Beyer’s that his new home have a real brick chimney. A perfectionist, he tore down several rows of brick that he had put up after noticing that the mortar spacing was uneven in some spots. Having painstakingly redone his own brickwork, the chimney’s first eight rows stand in perfect formation as a silent reminder to Mr. Beyer’s careful attention to detail. A Maltese Cross, the symbol for firefighters, will be carved into the chimney before the family moves in. In June, the Beyers would have celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary. Although they knew each other as teen-agers, the couple didn’t begin dating until they were in their early 20s. Mrs. Beyer fondly remembers her husband approaching her during a party to say he’d like to go out with her. He then added that she probably wouldn’t want to and walked away. Shocked, Mrs. Beyer told a mutual friend that she would love to date him, but when that friend failed to relay the message she decided to tell him in person. On their first date, they went to a movie and talked so much that they missed half of it. From that point on, the couple were inseparable. “I was scared of his love at first. People are always afraid of a good thing,” said Mrs. Beyer. “He made me very happy. He always treated me with love and respect.” An accomplished cook at both the firehouse and at home, Mr. Beyer made it a weekly tradition to prepare his “ultimate pancakes” for his wife on Saturday mornings and eggs on Sunday. He was also known for his culinary skills with lemon chicken and twice-baked potatoes. In addition to being a devoted husband, Mr. Beyer was also a strong presence in the lives of his two teen-age sons, Michael Paul and Shawn Patrick. Whether it was fishing, flying model airplanes, dirt-bike riding or driving in his jeep along the Tottenville beachfront, Mr. Beyer always had his sons by his side. Unlike other summers when the family would go on vacation, Mr. Beyer’s nonstop work on the construction of the new house prevented them from doing so recently. But, more memorable than any vacation pictures could hope to portray, Mrs. Beyer vividly remembers her husband taking a day off in late August and saying “I’m taking some time to spend with the boys at the beach.” As a member of the Fire Department’s Emerald Society, every year he looked forward to marching with Shawn, an alto saxophonist in the South Shore Band, as they participated in the Staten Island St. Patrick’s Parade. Mr. Beyer was also active as a stagehand, helping out during the band’s concert performances. For five years Mr. Beyer led his sons as Scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 46 based in the former Guthrie Scout Shack in Tottenville, where he would decorate the headquarters to look like a haunted house every Halloween. But it wasn’t complete until he donned a ghoulish costume. Whenever Mr. Beyer had a chance for some quiet relaxation, he enjoyed taking the family’s two dogs — a Labrador mix and a border collie — for a stroll along the beach. Mr. Beyer was a parishioner of Our Lady Help of Christians R.C. Church, Tottenville. In addition to his wife, the former Arlene Teixuro, and his two sons, Michael Paul and Shawn Patrick, surviving are his parents, Frederic and Constance Beyer; a brother, Mark, and three sisters, Ann Neitzel and Clare and Jane Beyer. The funeral will be Friday from the Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home, Tottenville, with a mass at 10 a.m. in Our Lady Help of Christians Church. An antique fire rig will be used to transport Mr. Beyer’s remains through his beloved Tottenville community — past his home as well as the new house he hoped to grow old in — before burial in Resurrection Cemetery, Pleasant Plains.