Services For NYPD Detective To Close Long Beach Road In Oceanside

A stretch of Long Beach Road in Oceanside will be closed all this afternoon and evening for the wake for former NYPD detective and 9/11 responder Luis Alvarez.

Alvarez died on Saturday from cancer that he developed after working in the rubble of the World Trade Center for three months. He was 53.

The wake is being held at Towers Funeral Home, located at 2681 S. Long Beach Road in Oceanside, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Long Beach Road will be closed between Foxhurst Road and Lincoln Avenue from 1 to 9 p.m.

Alvarez's funeral will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Immaculate Conception Church, located at 21-47 29th St. in Astoria.

Alvarez was born in Cuba, grew up in Astoria and graduated from Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School in East Elmhurst in 1983, according to QNS.com, and lived in Oceanside at the time of his death. He joined the NYPD in 1990 and served with the 108th police precinct in Long Island City.

Alvarez was admitted to hospice days after he appeared before Congress with former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart to ask officials to extend the compensation fund for treating 9/11 first responders.

"This fund isn't a ticket to paradise — it's to provide our families with care," Alvarez told the House Judiciary subcommittee on June 11. "You all said you would never forget. Well, I'm here to make sure that you don't."

The fund for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and their families is slated to end in 2020 and has already burned through more than two thirds of its money. Officials warn that beneficiaries will see their payments cut as much as 70 percent because of the shortfall.

Patch editors Maya Kaufman and Noah Manskar contributed to this story.