Kin mourns loss of firefighter

The call for "heavy rescue" from the neighboring

Centerport Fire Department at first seemed routine to Northport volunteer

firefighter William Varese.

It turned out to be anything but routine.

"I rolled up. I thought there was something weird about it," said Varese,

22. "I looked at the bike quick."

That bike involved in the Tuesday morning crash looked strikingly familiar,

he recalled thinking. And suddenly, he realized the damaged motorcycle

belonged to his older brother and fellow firefighter, Charles.

"That was probably one of the most horrible things I've seen in my whole

life," William Varese said, choking back tears the day after his brother's

death.

Charles Varese, 25, was struck and killed by a drug-impaired driver while

riding his motorcycle on Route 25A in Centerport, Suffolk police said. His 2004

Yamaha was struck by a 2004 Nissan driven by Jason R. Curry, 33, of Stony

Brook, shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday, police said.

It was the second motorcycle fatality on Long Island in the past week. On

Sunday, John Frazier, 44, of Roosevelt, was struck and killed in that

community. The driver of the car, Jacqueline Harris, 41, of Roosevelt, was

charged with driving while intoxicated.

In the Centerport accident, police said Curry, who was charged with driving

while ability impaired by drugs, drifted over the double yellow center line

and crashed head-on into Varese.

Curry, who finished a year-sentence in 2006 for selling drugs, was jailed

on $250,000 cash bail, according to the Suffolk Sheriff's Department.

In honor of Varese, bunting has been placed outside the Northport firehouse

on Main Street and the station on Waterside Road, department spokesman Jim

Mahoney said. Flags are at half-staff, as they are on many village buildings.

By any definition, the Vareses are a firefighting family.

Charles and William Varese's grandfather was a firefighter in Northport.

And their father, a retired New York City firefighter, is chief of the

Northport Fire Department. Their uncle, who responded to the scene of Tuesday's

crash, is chief of the Centerport Fire Department.

So it was no surprise that Charles Varese, a heating and air technician,

would be a volunteer firefighter in the department where his family roots went

deep. Even his mother, Lorri, is an emergency medical technician.

Yesterday morning, Mahoney and others recalled how Charles Varese, a

seven-year veteran, was awarded a meritorious medal for his actions one night

in the fall of 2004. Walking on Main Street, Varese smelled smoke and saw

flames burning a local deli.

Though he was not wearing any protective gear, Mahoney said, Varese ran

into the building and helped evacuate the upstairs apartments.

And, as a final act of service, Varese's family had hoped to donate his

organs, said his father, Robert, the fire chief known in the community as

"Beefy." But the young man's injuries from the crash were so extensive that

they couldn't.

"He just got so beat up that they weren't of any value," Robert Varese

said. "He just got so beat up on us. Imagine?"

Services for Charles Varese, who is survived by his parents and three

siblings, will be held tomorrow night at the Nolan & Taylor-Howe Funeral Home

in Northport. Services are Saturday at St. Paul's Lutheran church in East

Northport.

Staff writer Carl MacGowan contributed to this story.