Newsday

Fire Lt. Howard Carpluk, a 20-year veteran, died at Montefiore Medical Center, a day after the blaze claimed the life of firefighter Michael Reilly, 25, said assistant fire chief of operations Robert Sweeney.

"The loss of these two heroic firefighters will stay with all of us for the rest of our careers and the rest of our lives," Sweeney said.

Carpluk, 43, of Engine 42 in the Bronx, who fell into the basement of a discount store, passed away Monday at Montefiore Medical Center. Department officials did not list Carpluk's hometown, but records show he was a resident of Yaphank.

Officials said Carpluk, who is married and has a 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter, was working overtime for Engine 75 when the fire broke out.

Reilly, of Engine 75 in the Bronx, was carrying a hose inside 1575 Walton Ave., officials said, when the floor in the one-story building gave way beneath him, trapping him and four others in the basement just before 1 p.m.

Reilly, of Sleepy Hollow, grew up in Ramsey, N.J., where he once served as a volunteer firefighter. He joined the Marines in 2000 and was a sergeant in the Marine Reserves. Reilly was rescued from the rubble and rushed to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead, officials said. An official with the Ramsey Rescue Squad described Reilly as fearless and said he believed he served a one-year tour in Iraq two years ago.

"Firefighter Reilly was a hero and a patriot, who his parents said never wanted anything more than he wanted to be a firfighter and tragically, he died livng that dream," Mayor Bloomberg said this morning.

Officials said Reilly apparently died from heart failure and suffered no burns in the fall. Family members could not be reached for comment.

Battalion Chief Thomas Auer, 47, a 23-year veteran, Lt. John Grasso, 45, a 21-year veteran, and firefighter Wayne Walters, 36, a four-year veteran, were in serious but stable condition on Monday at Jacobi Medical Center.

On Monday, officials defended the tactics they used to fight the blaze, including the call to enter the building and search for trapped people. The cause of the fire is still unknown and an investigation is ongoing.

The death marked another sad day for the New York City Fire Department, which is just two weeks away from commemorating the loss of 343 men on Sept. 11, 2001. Yesterday's fire, in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx, occurred a mile from a building where two firefighters jumped four stories to their deaths on Jan. 23, 2005, a day known in the department as "Black Sunday."

"The loss of any of our bravest in the line of duty is a blow to the heart of our city," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at an impromptu news conference at the hospital.

The three-alarm fire broke out in a building that housed a 99-cent store and left 21 firefighters, from a battalion chief to rank-and-file firefighters, with smoke inhalation and other minor injuries, officials said. Only Carpluk's injuries were listed as critical. The cause of the fire has not been determined.

Officials said that workers at the store called 911 after the glass on a refrigerator shattered in an unexplained explosion. By the time firefighters arrived, the fire had started, officials said.

The fire, which department officials said was not deemed suspicious, burned for four hours before it was extinguished, officials said. Two hours into battling it, the blaze became a rescue operation when the floor gave way. More than 130 firefighters were at the scene, many of whom toiled to get an oxygen hose to the trapped firefighters in the basement.

A spokeswoman for the city buildings department said that the building had no history of structural problems.

Reilly had begun his firefighting career in his hometown in New Jersey, said Erik Endress, president of the volunteer Ramsey Rescue Squad.

"He is definitely cut from that cloth of run-into-the-fire guys," said Endress, who said Reilly joined in 1997, after high school. "He's a tough guy, right in your face. I'm sure he was making a great accomplishment for himself in the FDNY very quickly, as he did with us."

Evelyn Scharff, 37, who lives next door to Carpluk in Yaphank, described him as a trusted family friend, someone who has helped keep her pool clean and has been friendly with her children.

"He has the biggest heart. He seemed very dedicated to his work," Scharff said. She said that Carpluk has two children, a boy and a girl. Another neighbor, Craig Caruana, 30, said, "He was a great neighbor. He'd help make sure the fire hydrants were clear [of snow]."

At the news conference, Bloomberg, who alluded to Reilly's service in Iraq, said he had met Reilly at a recent ceremony inducting him into the fire department, and added that he also met Reilly's father, an accountant, who told him his son always wanted to be a firefighter.

"He was somebody who I shook hands with and congratulated only four months ago," the mayor said.

Carpluk and Reilly are the 1,133rd and 1,134th firefighters to be killed while working for the Fire Department of New York in its 142-year history.