Paul Cary, a Colorado paramedic who volunteered to fight COVID-19 in New York and succumbed to the disease himself, was returned to his home state Sunday night.
The plane carrying the body of Cary, 66, was greeted at Denver International Airport on May 3 by an honor guard of first responders.
Cary was a retired firefighter who worked for three decades with the Aurora Fire Department. Employed by private ambulance company Ambulnz, he deployed to New York City as part of Ambulnz’s New York State COVID response team during the coronavirus pandemic. When Cary arrived in New York in April he was stationed in the Bronx, an area considered one of the biggest “hotspots” in the city. Part of his work included transporting Covid-19 patients to hospitals. He contracted the virus three weeks into his deployment and died from COVID-19 on April 30.
On Sunday the first of two large processions held in his honor traveled from the Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home on Staten Island to Newark Liberty International Airport with an honor guard and a large contingent of fire and emergency responder vehicles.
Upon arrival at Denver International Airport, DIA’s fire apparatus RED 1 and RED 2, two highly specialized aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicles (ARFF), sprayed large streams of water over Cary’s plane as it turned into the gate.
Cary’s body was moved from the plane into an awaiting Ambulnz ambulance. A procession of dozens of fire and emergency vehicles escorted the ambulance as it wound its way from Denver International Airport, passing UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and ending at the Olinger Hampden Funeral Home & Cemetery, where Cary will be laid to rest.