(04/18/06) UNION TOWNSHIP ? Hundreds of people gathered in Union Township Tuesday at the funeral for a fallen volunteer firefighter.

Twenty-one-year-old Kevin Apuzzio died last week trying to save an elderly woman from a Franklin Township house fire. While Apuzzio was carrying 75-year-old Betty Scott out of the burning home, the floor beneath them collapsed into the basement. Apuzzio?s best friend says burying the fallen hero is one of the hardest things he?s ever had to do.

Following the service, Apuzzio?s coffin was placed on a fire truck and taken to Mount Olive Cemetery in Newark. Apuzzio was a student at Rutgers University where he also served as an Emergency Medical Technician.