DNA of firefighter killed on 9/11 identified in debris

The DNA of a New York firefighter has been identified in debris removed from the World Trade Center, the medical examiner's office said. Advances in technology made it possible to identify Lt. Jeffrey Walz, the New York Post reported Saturday. Walz, who was promoted to lieutenant after his death, was killed in the collapse of Tower One on Sept. 11, 2001. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, said 1,116 people of the 2,753 who died when terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers have not been identified. Walz, 37, the son of a firefighter, grew up on Staten Island and graduated from Pratt Institute with a degree in electrical engineering, the Staten Island Advance said. He was an electrical engineer in the Navy for five years before joining the Fire Department. He was living in Westchester County when he died. "My family always felt at some point we would get a phone call," Rani Walz, his wife, told the Post. "I wasn't so sure. This has reopened old wounds."