Thursday was an emotional day at McManus Funeral Home in Flatlands, Brooklyn, where members of New York’s Bravest saluted their fallen brother, Timothy Klein.
“He’s the sweetest kid I ever met,” said Lt. Robert Kittelberger, of Ladder 170, Klein’s firehouse. “He had a smile on his face 24 hours a day.”
Remembering that smile, friends and family fought back tears Thursday, as they said goodbye to Klein.
“I don’t know what I can possibly say about Timmy that hasn’t already been said,” Kittelberger said.
The Rockaway Beach native died Sunday while fighting a fire in Canarsie, when he got trapped under a collapsed ceiling.
He was 31 years old.
Klein is the 1,157th member of the FDNY to die in the line of duty.
Mayor Eric Adams stopped by to pay his respects to the family Thursday.
The lines of people who came to do the same stretched for blocks, a testament to how loved Klein was and is.
“Everything you hear about Tim Klein is, ‘He was the best firefighter, the best son, the best brother, the kind of guy that everybody relied on,’” said acting FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.
Klein was an active volunteer with the Fight for Firefighters organization.
The group, so far, has built 30 wooden ramps to help people who are handicapped get in and out of their homes.
“And Tim, did not miss one of those 30 builds,” said John Hodgens, acting FDNY Chief. “He was a real backbone in this organization, he was on the board.”
In his six years with the department, Klein had become the backbone of his firehouse, too.
Kittelberger got choked up when asked about his favorite memory of Klein: when the two of them worked together to write the eulogy for firefighter Steven Pollard of the Canarsie firehouse, who died in the line of duty in 2019.
“When he was writing the eulogy for Steven Pollard, he came to me and asked if I could help him with it, so we spent that week — we didn’t leave the firehouse, everyone was there around the clock and he’d just wander into my office and we’d sit for an hour here, an hour there,” Kittelberger said. “And if anybody hasn’t heard that, you should go listen to it because it was magnificent.”
Now, his fellow firefighters are left trying to find the words to honor Klein.
“We’re just going try to get through the next couple days, stick together, take care of each other, and watch each other’s backs, and we’ll get through it, but it’s going to be a tough haul without Tim because we loved him and he was a very big part of our firehouse,” said Kittelberger.
And they say, he always will be.
Klein’s funeral is behind held Friday at 11AM at St. Francis de Sales Church in Belle Harbor.