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Lt. Howard Carpluk, 43, died one day after the blaze killed rookie firefighter and Iraq war veteran Michael Reilly, 25. It was the deadliest day for New York City firefighters since "Black Sunday," when three firefighters died on Jan. 23, 2005.

"Today, New York City has lost another one of its bravest," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who visited the Bronx firehouses where both men worked. "When I met with the men of the Engine 42 this morning, they told me how the lieutenant faced each and every challenge before him bravely and unflinchingly. Yesterday was no different."

Firefighter Chris Daley, who was helping to put up purple and black bunting in Carpluk's memory at Engine Company 42, said Carpluk was a devoted family man and firefighter. Carpluk, from Yaphank, N.Y., is survived by his wife and two children, ages 10 and 14.

"He was a great guy," Daley said. "He was always smiling. ... We're all sad and in shock."

Two 11-year-old boys who live in an apartment house across from the firehouse added candles to a sidewalk altar in Carpluk's memory.

"We liked him. He let us fly down the pole, and one day he let us sit on the truck," said Felix Jimenez.

Scores of firefighters were called to the one-story Bronx building around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, and five of them became trapped in the basement after the ground floor gave way while they were searching for victims. The firefighters had to be given oxygen through a special hose before they could be pulled out.

Besides the floor collapse, a rooftop air conditioner at the store fell through the ceiling. Assistant fire chief Robert Sweeney said firefighters secured the air conditioning unit to a billboard, as is standard practice. He said it is too early to say whether the air conditioner falling through the roof contributed to the floor collapse or whether it happened subsequent to the collapse.

Of the three surviving firefighters who were trapped, Battalion Chief Thomas Auer, 47, and Lt. John Grasso, 45, were in serious but stable condition at the New York-Cornell Hospital burn unit. The third firefighter, Wayne Walters, 36, was released.

The store, Mega 99, sold discounted toiletries, kitchen supplies and knickknacks. About 20 firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation.

The cause of the collapse was under investigation. The fire was not deemed suspicious.

Employees at the store called 911 when smoke started billowing from behind a refrigerator and they couldn't stop it with a fire extinguisher, owner Anis Shaibi said.

Shaibi, a U.S. citizen who came to the United States from Yemen in 1989, said the fire spread quickly. He recalled watching from across the street and fearing for the lives of the firefighters as they entered the burning building.

When he heard that a firefighter had died Sunday and another died Monday, he was overcome with sadness. He said he lost everything but it didn't matter in light of what the firefighters' families lost.

"It just hurts so much," he said. "There is now no way to express myself."

One of the building's owners did not immediately return a telephone message left with his Bronx office.

The glass doors were blown out of the building, which had a clean structural history, a buildings department spokeswoman said.

Carpluk and Reilly were operating a hose line together when the floor gave out. Reilly was the nozzle man, directing where the spray of water went, and Carpluk was by his side supervising.

Carpluk was appointed to the fire department on Aug. 2, 1986. During his career, he was awarded two citations for bravery, including one for a rescue on March 30, 1988, when he saved the lives of two unconscious men he found in the bedroom of a fire-engulfed apartment in the Bronx.

Reilly, of Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., had always dreamed of being a firefighter and graduated from the fire academy July 6. Reilly joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2000 and was a sergeant in the Marine Reserves.

Bloomberg recalled meeting Reilly at his graduation ceremony this year, shaking his hand and presenting him with a plaque.

"I think they can be very proud that their son did what he wanted to do," Bloomberg said.

The deaths brought back memories of "Black Sunday," when two firefighters died after jumping from the fourth floor of a blazing building in the Bronx. On the same day, a firefighter in Brooklyn died while searching a home for survivors of a blaze.

Two firefighters injured on "Black Sunday" visited Engine 42 on Monday as their brethren mourned the loss of Reilly and Carpluk.