by JONATHAN LEMIRE
Firefighter Robert Beddia was always young at heart.
Athletic and energetic, Beddia had an exuberance that made him seem far younger than his 53 years, his relatives said yesterday.
Beddia's enthusiasm kept him in the FDNY well beyond retirement age and led him to volunteer for the dangerous assignment that took his life at the toxic Deutsche Bank tower.
"None of us could ever picture Bobby getting old," his brother Ed Carman said. "He had the mentality of a kid, the heart of a kid."
"You lose your baby brother, you're devastated. But at least this is the way Bobby would've wanted to go."
"He had a hero inside him."
Beddia, the senior man at Manhattan's Engine 24, had become the unit's chauffeur. He drove the rig to fires and hooked the truck up to a water source, but rarely ventured into burning buildings.
On Aug. 18, as the rig raced toward the burning skyscraper that towered over Ground Zero, Beddia told his fellow firefighters he wanted to go into the building, his brother said.
Beddia and Firefighter Joseph Graffagnino, 33, got trapped in the smoke-filled, maze-like tower and ran out of air before colleagues could respond to their desperate cries of "Mayday."
"Here he was on the front of the hose, right on the fire," Carman said. "That's what he wanted to do - he wanted to be in on the action, and he wanted to help out a younger guy."
Drawing on 23 years of experience, Beddia often acted as a mentor for the younger firefighters. He was devastated when Engine 24/Ladder 5 lost three men in a 1994 blaze and 11 more on 9/11.
His family is now searching for answers.
"We think there is some wrongdoing, but we will not blame the Fire Department," Carman said. "Bobby loved that job, and he wouldn't have thought twice about going into that fire."
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