Residents Line Route To Holy Sepulchre After Private Funeral For CFD Michael Altman

CHICAGO—The sky sobbed as firefighters, family and friends gathered in the rain to salute fallen Chicago Firefighter Michael “Mickey” Altman as his casket was carried out of Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in Oak Lawn following a private, invitation-only funeral service.

Altman died in the line of duty after he was badly burned fighting an arson fire on Chicago’s North Side. A man has been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated residential arson and aggravated arson.

A much more public funeral mass at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel was postponed when Altman’s wife, Nora, went into labor last week on the day of her late husband’s scheduled visitation. She gave birth to a baby girl named Evelyn Rose. The couple also has a son.

An invitation-only funeral service was scheduled instead for Tuesday morning at the Oak Lawn funeral home. Still, it had the same solemnity and ceremony, with firefighters in their dress uniforms and raincoated colleagues on their shifts saluting their fallen brother.

The family had asked residents to line the route to the cemetery. A fire engine with Altman’s Chicago flag-draped casket riding on top slowly made its way down 111th Street beneath crossed ladders flying the American flag to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. Residents stood under umbrellas in a show of support for the Altman family.

“I just felt it was the right thing to do to come out and pay my respects,” I just felt it was the right thing to do to come out and pay my respects,” a woman told WGN. “He was a hero. He died in the line of duty protecting the city …”

The 32-year-old Altman was a fourth-generation Chicago firefighter. He had two years with the Chicago Fire Department.