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Geoffrey Guja, NYFD

Geoffrey Guja, NYFD

Geoffrey Guja, on his wedding day, with wife Debbie and daughter.

Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001 was a new beginning for Geoffrey Guja. A Lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department, he was returning to his job after being out on disability due to an injury he had suffered in a fire.

Guja was on light desk duty at a the Fire Department's headquarters in Brooklyn when the call went out about the tragedy at the New York City World Trade Center. As fire-fighters scrambled to prepare equipment and rush to the scene, Guja shouted to fellow firefighters that there was no time. He hopped on the subway and rushed into Manhattan.

Once near the scene, Guja went to the Number 10 firehouse, across from the Trade Center, put on boots and a helmet and headed to the scene.

"After the first tower came down, he radioed in that he was okay," said Howard Guja, Geoffrey’s brother. "He was laying cable to establish communications for a command headquarters they were trying to set up."

That was the last anyone heard from Geoffrey Guja, who was trapped beneath the rubble and killed when the second tower came down minutes later.

But this isn’t a story about Guja’s death. Instead it is about his life; a life, said his family that was filled with love and with the gift of giving.

"He always gave everything he had, everything," said his brother.

Geoffrey Guja, a twin, was born to Doris and Howard Guja 47 years ago. He was raised in Massapequa and graduated from Berner High School. He attended Harper College in Binghamton, New York and, after working at several jobs joined the New York City Fire Department when he was 27 years old. He was a registered nurse and an EMT. He and his wife Debbie and two children live in Lindenhurst.

Lt. Guja was a husband, father, brother, son, uncle and friend and those that knew him talked about a man who lived every minute to the fullest, open to all that life had to offer.

And, he took life on with wit and humor. When his fellow firefighters took his locker and placed it 16-feet high above the floor of his firehouse, he simply took a ladder, climbed up there and changed his clothes.

Often, Geoffrey Guja would gather his friends and family together, at a large barbecue at the beach, sending send out invitations. The latest was tacked on to a board at the Claude R. Boyd-Spencer Funeral Home in Babylon Village next to dozens of photos and other memorabilia of past adventures that made up Geoffrey Guja’s life.

A floral display at his wake at the funeral home was designed into the likeness of a bright yellow chicken, a reminder of his presence in their lives to the children he frequently entertained by dressing in a chicken costume. Another is of a houseboat like the one that Guja owns that now sits docked at Gilgo Beach flying a large American flag.

"He was bigger than life to the kids," said his brother. "He never had a bad word to say about anyone and while the adults would often say he should calm down and relax and act more like a grown up, the kids loved him just the way he was."

Howard Guja said it came as no surprise to him to learn that his brother had run into the line of fire to help others. He just never thought, he said, that he would have made it to the scene before the buildings collapsed. "I wasn’t too worried at first, but then one day passed and then another and we still hadn’t heard from him."

Howard Guja works near the site and was at LaGuardia airport, ready to take off, when the attack occurred. The plane was grounded and Guja made phone calls to his staff.

"One of the people told me she still can’t sleep," he said. "She just keeps seeing the faces of those brave firemen running up the stairs of the building trying to save lives as she and thousands of others were running toward safety. My brother was one of those firefighters; one of those men who rushed into a fire when everyone else would be running out. He would give everyone everything he had, and ultimately, he gave his life."

Despite that, there is no anger; no hatred or bitterness in Howard Guja’s voice. He said that would not be the ultimate tribute he would want for his brother. Instead, he said, he and his family are trying to focus on the tremendous outpouring of love coming from not only the people they know but also from strangers in this country and around the world.

"What we are experiencing is a personal loss just as more than 6,000 other families are experiencing a loss, and while that seems unfathomable, it is minuscule compared to the love and concern we see around the world. This was an act of a few madmen; the reaction is the act of love and goodness from millions of people."

In addition to his wife Debbie of Lindenhurst and his brother Howard of Babylon Village, Mr. Guja is survived by his daughters Kelly and Jamie, his sister Judy Genovese, Patty Catalano and his brother Gary. His faithful companion, his dog Simba, also survives him.

His parents, Doris and Howard Guja predeceased him. —Stories by Carolyn James