(Image Credit: FDNY/AP Photo)

The remains of a New York City firefighter were positively identified nearly 12 years after he was killed in the World Trade Center, the city medical examiner's office said today.

The identification of Jeffrey Walz, a 37-year-old lieutenant with Ladder 9, was made by retesting remains that were recovered during the initial recovery phase before May 2002, according to the medical examiner's office.

Nearly a dozen years after the attacks, the identification process has continued. Of the 2,753 victims, 1,116 have not had remains identified, according to a report from the medical examiner's office.

Walz, of Tuckahoe, N.Y., worked as a U.S. Navy engineer, but decided to follow in his father's footsteps in 1992 when he became a New York City firefighter, according to the Staten Island Advance.

"The only way to describe Jeff is to say he was the most caring, gentle, kind and patient person ever to enter my life," his wife, Rani Walz, told the newspaper on Oct. 2, 2001. "I've never known anyone like him."