By Luiz Perez
Newsday (New York)
Copyright 2006 Newsday, Inc.
As the probe into what caused a floor to collapse during the Bronx blaze focused on repairs made after a fire there six years earlier, a second firefighter — a decorated lieutenant and Long Island father of two — has died, officials said.
Howard Carpluk, 43, of Yaphank, died at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx just before 11 a.m. yesterday, officials said. The 20-year veteran had been fighting for nearly 24 hours to recover from a heart attack suffered during Sunday’s fire.
Officials said Carpluk and four others were searching for victims inside a burning 99-cent store on Walton Avenue in the Mount Eden section when the roof of the one-story building gave way, plummeting them into a cocoon of debris in the basement. Officials believe the fire began in a refrigeration unit in the back of the store.
Firefighter Michael Reilly, 25, who served as a Marine sergeant in Iraq and had just four months on the job, was pronounced dead, also of a heart attack, less than two hours after the collapse, officials said.
“In less than 24 hours, we lost two courageous men,” Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said in a statement. “It is a heartbreaking loss for the Fire Department, whose members know all too well of the great sacrifice that firefighters are called upon to make in order to protect us all.”
Visitation for Reilly will be 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 10 p.m. tomorrow and Thursday at Van Emburgh-Sneider Funeral Home on Darlington Avenue in Ramsey, N.J. The funeral will be 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Ramsey.
Of the five men who were trapped, two remained hospitalized yesterday in stable condition and one was released last night. In all, 23 firefighters were hurt in the three-alarm blaze that took four hours to extinguish.
A top fire official yesterday defended the way firefighters battled the fire. Assistant Chief of Operations Robert Sweeney said Reilly and Carpluk were among a team who entered the building carrying a hose and searching for victims. “They saved lives in the past with this operating procedure and the department is very proud of it,” Sweeney said.
The fire was the deadliest blaze since Jan. 23, 2005, when two firefighters jumped to their deaths less than a mile from Sunday’s fire.
Joined by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a news conference, Scoppetta vowed every aspect of the fire would be investigated. Officials said that while the fire’s origin is not suspicious, it was not clear why the ceiling collapsed.
“The marshal will be looking at everything, every factor, every variable of the building and of the operations,” one fire department source said.
One thing investigators were probing was whether roof work done after a fire there in November 2000 might have led to the collapse, sources said. According to the city buildings department, part of that work - alterations to a parapet - was performed without a permit. Other aspects of the renovation were apparently approved by the city.
A spokeswoman for the buildings department, Jennifer Givner, said that agency was cooperating with the fire marshals in the investigation.
The building dates to 1920, Givner said. Property records show it is owned by Davir Realty of the Bronx. The owners of that firm, David Gold and Robert Bauer, did not respond to several phone calls or a knock on their door yesterday. Records show that Gold, an attorney with properties in Brooklyn and Queens, pleaded guilty to federal charges in 1984 stemming from involvement in property arson schemes.
Other fatal FDNY blazes
Some of the FDNY’s deadliest fires:
Jan. 23, 2005: Firefighters Lt. John Bellew and Lt. Curtis Meyran die after jumping from the fourth floor of a burning Bronx apartment building. The day would come to be known as Black Sunday for the Fire Department. A third firefighter died in a Brooklyn fire.
Sept. 11, 2001: 343 New York firefighters are killed during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
June 17, 2001: A Father’s Day fire causes blast at a hardware store in Astoria, collapsing the roof and claiming the lives of three firefighters: Harry Ford, Brian Fahey and Lt. John J. Downing.
Dec. 18, 1998: A wind-induced fireball kills three firefighters - Christopher Bopp, James Bohan and Lt. Joseph Cavalieri - as they search for survivors in a Brooklyn senior residence.
March 28, 1994: Firefighters James Young and Christopher Siedenburg and Fire Capt. John Drennan suffer fatal injuries in a SoHo townhouse blaze.
Aug. 2, 1978: Six firefighters die when the roof of a Waldbaum’s supermarket in Sheepshead Bay collapses in an arson fire.
Oct. 17, 1966: A first-floor drugstore fire in an East 23rd Street Manhattan brownstone claims the lives of 12 firefighters.