NY Daily News

The emergency calls came in one after another: A man on the subway tracks. A gas leak. A building collapse. A small fire.

Fourteen long hours into their double shift, the dinner break was supposed to be a moment of relaxation for the elite firefighters of Manhattan's Rescue 1, whose subway run had been photographed by the Daily News.

But the downtime turned tragic when a cabbie slammed into the back of a Rescue 1 truck on the upper West Side late Wednesday, injuring veteran Firefighters John Walters, 37, and Mike Schunk, 41.

"I was out on the sidewalk when it happened," said FDNY Lt. Jim Carney, one of four Bravest who escaped injury during the 10:30 p.m. wreck on Columbus Ave. "I don't quite know what happened. That cabbie came from nowhere."

Rescue 1's concerned firefighters split their time yesterday between Bellevue Hospital, where Walters was in critical condition, and New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, where Schunk was in stable condition.

Walters, of Port Washington, L.I., underwent 12 hours of surgery to repair compound fractures to both his legs after he was pinned between the cab and the fire truck.

Doctors initially thought the married firefighter, who has been temporarily assigned to Rescue 1, could lose part of his right leg. But Walters had regained at least partial circulation in the limb by late yesterday, an FDNY source said.

"He's lucky that he has no internal injuries," the source said. "Hopefully he's on his way to recovery."

Walters and Schunk - who both responded to the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks - were among several firefighters who helped care for a man who fell onto the subway tracks at 57th St. and Seventh Ave. Wednesday.

About five hours before the horrific taxi accident, The News photographed Walters as he helped carry the bloodied man from the subway station.

Schunk, an ex-cop who joined the FDNY in 1994, was more concerned yesterday about his family and Walters' recovery than about his own injuries. Schunk, the married father of a 2-year-old girl, broke his right tibia, requiring a rod to be placed in his leg, when the cab hit the double-parked FDNY rig near W. 71st St.

"His spirits are good. His prognosis is good. He's going to recovery," Schunk's wife, Veronica, 37, said last night before heading back to their Long Beach, L.I., home. "Considering what happened, Michael is a very lucky man."

After a visit from Mayor Bloomberg, Schunk ate a mozzarella hamburger in his hospital room yesterday afternoon. The rescue company's best cook, whose firehouse specialty is linguini and clams, had ordered the same burger from Big Nick's Too just before Wednesday's accident. Bloomberg visited Walters at Bellevue last night.

No charges were filed against the cabbie, Mohammed Ali Khamis, 45. He and his passenger, Jorge Carballo, 37, were treated at St. Luke's Hospital for minor injuries. Khamis apparently was trying to pass a slower-moving car when he hit the FDNY truck, a police source said.

Fire officials said it's routine for firefighters to go on meal breaks as a group because it allows them to respond together if there is an emergency. The rig was double-parked because of its length. "Where are you going to find a parking space for a truck that size?" a fire official asked.