When the deadliest fire in New York City in more than 25 years ripped through the apartment building where Pfc. Emmanuel Mensah lived, he made a choice.

Instead of escaping unharmed to live out his life as a newly minted soldier and American citizen, Private Mensah, 26, went back inside to rescue his neighbors, ultimately paying with his life. He was among the 13 victims of the December fire, including five members of a family rooted in Jamaica, five other immigrants from his native Ghana, a woman from Puerto Rico and her infant granddaughter. The blaze was started by a 3-year-old boy playing with a stove.

On Saturday, a white hearse bearing a picture of his smiling face in the rear window carried him to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in the Bronx, where it was met by a line of soldiers offering their salute. Bagpipers played “Amazing Grace,” while on a nearby corner, two fire trucks hoisted an American flag over the center lanes of East 187th Street.

The soldier’s father, Kwabena Mensah, and four siblings were among the mourners looking on as his light blue coffin, draped in an American flag, was taken inside the church, where the flag was temporarily replaced with a white cloth.