Mourners salute from a distance at funeral of Chicago firefighter who died of COVID-19

Chicago Fire Department personnel salute during the procession to the cemetery from firefighter Mario Araujo’s funeral at Theis-Gorski Funeral Home on the Northwest Side, Monday morning, April 13, 2020. Araujo, 49, died April 7 after a battle with the coronavirus, representing the first member of the fire department to die of the virus. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Hundreds of Chicago Fire Department personnel and law enforcement officers stood more than 6 feet apart on North Pulaski Road and saluted Monday morning as the hearse carrying firefighter Mario Araujo traveled to a Northwest Side cemetery.

Araujo’s funeral, at Theis-Gorski Funeral Home in the Irving Park neighborhood, was attended by only “a very limited number” of family members, according to the fire department. Hundreds of Araujo’s colleagues and supporters waited outside the funeral home and eventually joined in the procession to Montrose Cemetery, where a brief ceremony, featuring bagpipes and a 21-gun salute, took place in front of the crematorium. Araujo’s mother was presented with the Chicago flag that draped her son’s casket.

Araujo, 49, joined the fire department in October 2003 and spent most of his career on Truck 25, which operates out of Engine 102 in Rogers Park on the North Side. He died April 7 after a battle with the coronavirus. He is the first member of the fire department to die of COVID-19.

Chicago Fire Department personnel salute during the procession to the cemetery from firefighter Mario Araujo’s funeral at Theis-Gorski Funeral Home on the Northwest Side, Monday morning, April 13, 2020. Araujo, 49, died April 7 after a battle with the coronavirus, representing the first member of the fire department to die of the virus.

Chicago Fire Department personnel salute during the procession to the cemetery from firefighter Mario Araujo’s funeral at Theis-Gorski Funeral Home on the Northwest Side, Monday morning, April 13, 2020. Araujo, 49, died April 7 after a battle with the coronavirus, representing the first member of the fire department to die of the virus.

Chicago Fire Department firefighters salute during the procession to the cemetery from firefighter Mario Araujo’s funeral at Theis-Gorski Funeral Home on the Northwest Side, Monday morning, April 13, 2020.

The hearse carrying Chicago Fire Department firefighter Mario Araujo travels in a procession from Theis-Gorski Funeral Home to Montrose Cemetery on the Northwest Side, Monday morning, April 13, 2020.

Chicago Fire Department and Chicago Police Department personnel salute during the procession to the cemetery from firefighter Mario Araujo’s funeral at Theis-Gorski Funeral Home on the Northwest Side, Monday morning, April 13, 2020. Araujo, 49, died April 7 after a battle with the coronavirus, representing the first member of the fire department to die of the virus.