Sept. 11 first responder honored as Lakeview’s Firefighter of the Year

He would give you the shirt off his back. Victor never hesitated.”

Victor Cantelmo II, Father

Victor Cantelmo III was the kind of guy who would take his neighbors’ garbage cans to the curb. The kind of guy who donated regularly to blood drives. Cantelmo, 57, died in February of lung disease brought about by his work at the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, but his lifetime of service to others is still being felt by the Lakeview community and beyond. Cantelmo was an easy choice for Lakeview’s Firefighter of the Year.

“He would give you the shirt off his back,” Victor’s mother, Nancy, said. “Victor never hesitated. You didn’t even have to ask him if you needed something. If he saw that you needed something, he got it for you. He was a very giving person.”

Cantelmo joined the Lakeview Volunteer Fire Department at age 18, following in the footsteps of his father, Victor II, who became a firefighter when his son was 5. Victor III was elected captain six years later, in 1990, and again in 1991. He served as assistant chief in 1993.

He did all of this while also being a New York City police officer, having joined the NYPD at age 22. He went on to become a member of the Honor Legion. Cantelmo served as a police officer for seven years, until he achieved his true dream: becoming a firefighter with the FDNY, as his father had.

“Victor was always available to help,” Lakeville Chief Michael Joyce said.

Cantelmo never shied away from hard work, his father said. “He was always an overachiever,” Victor II said. “Always there for everybody.

“He was always out there helping,” he added. “Little things. Something somebody else didn’t want to do, Victor would do it.”

Nancy feels immense pride when reflecting on her son’s achievements, she said — but at the time, it was just Victor being Victor.

“I used to call him the garbage patrol,” Nancy recounted, “because he’d get up early in the morning and not only pulled in his own (garbage) and his mother’s, but he pulled in four neighbors’ also. He was just that kind of an outgoing person.”

Cantelmo’s drive to serve others seemed innate. He was also a loving big brother to his sister, Nanette, who was born with muscular dystrophy. When he was a Cub Scout and his troop raised money for muscular dystrophy research, Cantelmo would collect the most.

In the fall of 2001, he was a member of the FDNY. After responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center as a firefighter, he felt a personal call to do more. He devoted countless hours of his personal time to the recovery effort at ground zero. That brought on the lung disease that eventually took his life.

The Lakeview community still feels the effects of Cantelmo’s life of service. His posthumous honor, presented by New York State Elks Lodge No. 1, is helping ease the neighborhood’s grief, Nancy said.

“The whole neighborhood misses him,” his mother said. “So many people out there, who are missing Victor something awful, are very happy that he’s being recognized.”

“He’s getting the honor he deserves,” his father said. He and Nancy are trying to get Sylvan Drive renamed for their son.

If there’s one thing they want people to learn from his life, Nancy said, it’s that not everybody in the world is bad. There are still kind people out there. People who would not only take your garbage to the curb, but sacrifice their life for yours.