Bodies of seven firefighters found in WTC wreckage identified; three from same company

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Posted 2:38PM on Thursday, January 3, 2002

NEW YORK - The bodies of seven more firefighters pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center have been identified, including three from the same company who were found together in a buried lobby. Lt. Robert Regan and firefighters Joseph Agnello and Peter Anthony Vega were part of a six-man crew from Engine Co. 205 Ladder 118 in Brooklyn. The three were found New Year's Day as excavation crews opened up the lobby of the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel. The bodies were identified by the medical examiner's office. "It's a mixed emotion because it dredged up the shock of Sept. 11," Agnello's widow, Vinnie Carla, said in Thursday's Daily News. "I was just going on with my life, thinking they'd never find him. ... It hurts all over again." The same company lost two other firefighters in the trade center collapse. Neither has been found. The bodies of four other firefighters and three civilians were also found New Year's Day, officials said. The firefighters were identified as Christopher Pickford, Steven Coakley, George Cain and Charles Mendez. Cain and Mendez were attached to the same company in Manhattan. The fire department on Wednesday pulled back on plans to prohibit firefighters from leaving their companies to go to the trade center site when firefighters' bodies were found. Firefighters will be allowed to go after notifying supervisors and once another firehouse is assigned to cover their area, the department said.