By Laura Turbay
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Bells rang out on the South Side in honor of Chicago firefighter and paramedic Daniel Capuano, who died in the line of duty 10 years ago Sunday.
At the Engine Co. 72 fire station in Avalon Park, dozens of Chicago Fire Department members and Capuano’s close family and friends stood together, red-cheeked and sipping coffee, catching up with one another. Outside, fire trucks, one with a plastic Santa Claus atop, flashed their lights. A prayer was followed by loving words from family and colleagues who knew him.
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Capuano died after falling into an open elevator shaft while battling a fire in a vacant South Side warehouse on Dec. 14, 2015. The 43-year-old was the father of three and a 15-year member of the Chicago Fire Department.
Known for his sense of humor, Capuano’s daughter, Amanda Capuano, believes that had her dad been there with them, he would’ve lifted their spirits.
“I think he would definitely have cracked a joke to lighten up the mood because that’s just kind of who he was,” said Amanda, 26. “He definitely would be so honored to see everyone gathered here for him.”
She was 16 when her father died. She grew up aspiring to be a high school history teacher, but after her father’s death, she chose to go into nursing. Today, she is an emergency room nurse at a suburban hospital.
“I felt so angry the first few years after it happened, and then one day I decided, I can do better than this,” Amanda Capuano said. “I can be better than this, and I’m gonna make sure this never happens to anybody else.”
She graduated from nursing school at Loyola University Chicago in 2022, and attended Mother McAuley High School in Mount Greenwood. She remembers her father driving for hours to make it to her cheerleading competitions.
In 2015, Amanda wrote a letter that was read by her father’s co-workers at his funeral. “Back in 8th grade, during the blizzard, he took the train down to see me compete at state,” she wrote. “I forgot my coat in the hallway and my dad made me wrap towels around my shoulders so I didn’t freeze.”
At Sunday’s service, she stood next to her brother Andrew, 24, who this summer started working as a Chicago firefighter like their dad.
“I’d like to think we all learned from him and followed in his footsteps in a way,” Amanda Capuano said.
Capuano’s widow, Julie, said seeing everyone at the memorial service for her late husband — from firemen to hockey kids he used to coach — made her heart feel warm.
She was 22 when she married Capuano. Soon after, they moved into a house and had three children: Amanda, Andrew and Nick. It was right before Christmas when she learned her husband had died.
“I’m broken inside by losing you Dan. I’m just not sure what I’m going to do. I will miss your hands and face, your funny sense of humor, your loving touch, your kisses and our conversations together,” his wife said in her letter that was read at the funeral.
The warehouse, in the 9200 block of South Baltimore Avenue, was called “an immediate and ongoing threat of irreparable harm” to the public. City Building Department officials said the building’s owners did not have proper permits and the removal of the elevator was unauthorized, the Tribune reported in 2015. Capuano’s family filed a lawsuit against the building owners.
Retired firefighter captain and battalion chief Jake Jakubec was with Capuano that day, he said. He pulled up to the smoke-filled warehouse at around 10 a.m. There were bricks lying around on the second floor as though for construction and he noticed nothing protecting the elevator shaft.
Then he remembers hearing, “Mayday, mayday!” A fireman had fallen through the floor — it was Capuano.
“It affected me for 18 months. I wasn’t right,” said Jakubec, who was with the Fire Department for over 40 years before retiring. “I prayed a lot, came to the site, we put a cross up over here, so it was very emotional for me,” he said.
A tall wooden cross stands today in the place where Capuano is believed to have fallen to his death. It reads “Daniel Capuano, Never Forget.”
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