FF reported down in Brooklyn

[JHR1985]

Another blow for another sad week. Condolences go out to his family and his family at the FDNY.....

Plus... Webteam, please keep Hotrotter out of this topic. I'm sure he will ruin it

[somchfn03]

my thoughts and prayers are with our Brother from Brooklyn.

[fireslayer1237]

my thoughts and prayers go out to our brother's family and the FDNY

[frosty11869]

"RFB" Rest in peace brother. My condolences to the brothers in FDNY as well as their families and also the brothers of Charleston and their families.

[engine13A]

my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and his company. Rest in Peace Brother.

[FFFRED]

Firefighter’s Fatal Fall Cut Short a Lifelong Pursuit


By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Published: June 22, 2007
Firefighter Daniel F. Pujdak fell to his death yesterday while trying to save an artist’s loft less than two miles from the three-story aluminum-sided house in Greenpoint where he was raised.

Those two buildings, and the man linked to both of them, tell the story of the shifting dynamics of industrial Brooklyn: working-class neighborhoods settled by European immigrants, and the frontier of artistic colonization. The apartment that Mr. Pujdak had been trying to save had been illegally converted into an artist’s loft, according to city officials.

Mr. Pujdak, 23, was the middle of three sons raised in a neighborhood of Polish immigrants, with Polish dance clubs and strings of kielbasa hanging in store windows. His father, Leo Pujdak, was a schoolteacher.

Daniel Pujdak and his younger brother, Matthew, separated in age by only 16 months, lived almost in lockstep. Both graduated from St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens. Both attended SUNY Cortland. And both had long had ambitions to become firefighters, a goal that the older brother fulfilled two years ago.

“I wanted to do it before him, but he got there before me,” said Matthew Pujdak, who had also passed a qualifying exam to join the Fire Department and expected to start his training in September.

Phyllis Wojno, who lived downstairs from the Pujdak family for more than a decade, said Daniel Pujdak was excited when he made it to the academy. “It was meant to be when he got into the Fire Department,” she said. “It was something he always wanted.”

The new job helped Mr. Pujdak mature. “The Fire Department changed him, made him like a man,” Ms. Wojno said. About a year ago, he moved out of the house where he had lived for over a decade and moved to Fresh Meadows, Queens.

The physical challenge of firefighting appealed to Mr. Pujdak. He had always been athletic, his friends and family said. In high school, he was a right-handed pitcher for the baseball team. Matthew McCabe, a high school friend, said: “When it snowed and there were snowballs around, watch out! That kid had an arm.”

At SUNY Cortland, he got his degree in kinesiology and physical education. Even after he joined the department, he worked part time as a trainer at a gym and was training for a triathlon, his family said.

At the firehouse where Mr. Pujdak worked with Ladder Company 146, the flag was at half-staff yesterday, and the firefighters were in mourning.

“He was a young, aggressive firefighter who everyone thought was going to be a leader on the job,” a fire chief said outside the firehouse.

A lieutenant said: “People see us playing with water or whatever, but what they don’t realize is that two minutes after they see us we could be crawling down a hallway or falling off a roof, which is what happened to this 23-year-old kid. At any given time we can go out on a job and not come back.”

Matthew Pujdak, who was at Bellevue Hospital Center yesterday, said his brother had been trying to get him into shape. The two had gone jogging a few days ago, and Daniel was going to lend Matthew a spare firefighter’s mask so he could practice running on stairs with it.

He said Daniel had not been frightened by the danger of the job. “He told me it’s not as bad as everyone thinks,” he said. His brother’s death had not deterred him, he said, adding, “I still want to go in.”

Reporting was contributed by Daryl Khan, Andy Newman, Tanzina Vega and Ethan Wilensky-Lanford.

[FFFRED]

A 23-year-old firefighter was killed in Brooklyn yesterday when he fell four stories while fighting a small blaze ignited by a cigarette that had been left on a windowsill, officials said.


New York City Fire Department
Daniel F. Pujdak

The firefighter, Daniel F. Pujdak, fell outside a four-story brick building, a onetime warehouse on the edge of Williamsburg.

He landed on the pavement amid the tangle of hoses and equipment. Stunned colleagues crowded around, and after he was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, they milled around in front of the building, their expressions grim. Before they packed up and headed back to the firehouse, some sat on the ground, their hands over their faces.

“It is a terrible loss for the entire city,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said, “and it reminds us just how dangerous firefighting is.”

No one else was injured in the fire.

Firefighter Pujdak had grown up not far away, in the heart of the heavily Polish Greenpoint neighborhood. The son of a schoolteacher, he had been in the department for 19 months. He was the first to die in the line of duty in the city since August and the 1,135th killed in the Fire Department’s history.

The fire was confined to the windowsill. The white walls in the apartment showed no signs of damage from smoke, but the exterior of the building had black, sooty stains.

Witnesses said it was not immediately clear whether Firefighter Pujdak fell from the ladder or from the roof. The fire commissioner, Nicholas Scoppetta, said he slipped on a parapet atop the building as he was climbing down. He said Firefighter Pujdak had been the “roof man” yesterday — that is, the one assigned to carry a 40-pound saw to the roof and cut a hole to vent the fire if necessary.

Witnesses said Firefighter Pujdak appeared to lose his balance, and hit the ground on his back.

Mr. Scoppetta said that when the firefighters arrived, the blaze appeared more serious and extensive than it turned out to be. Witnesses said they saw heavy smoke pouring from the window when fire trucks took up their positions in the street.

Mr. Scoppetta said the room where the fire started was an artist’s studio. It was on the top floor of what was once an industrial building, but tenants said the structure had been illegally converted to lofts more than 10 years ago when the neighborhood began to draw younger residents.

More than 60 firefighters were sent to the building — on Meserole Street, near Leonard Street — just before 5 p.m., when a caller to 911 reported seeing smoke in a window.

That came as a surprise to some tenants. Billy Nemec, 29, a swing guitarist who was moving out of his first-floor apartment, learned of the drama upstairs when he went into the street and someone told him, “Your building’s on fire.”

“I get across the street and a window frame falls right in front of the front door, where I was just standing,” Mr. Nemec said.

Other witnesses said Firefighter Pujdak was maneuvering his way around the parapet when he fell. “It looked like he was overcome by the smoke,” said Shatiner Getty, 27, a computer student who lives a block away. “It looked like there was just too much smoke, and he lost his balance.”

Another witness, Marlene McAllister, 46, added, “He was just trying to do his job.”

The mayor met with Firefighter Pujdak’s parents, Leo and Christina Pujdak, and one of his two brothers at Bellevue Hospital. “They are devastated,” the mayor said.

Firefighter Pujdak was assigned to Ladder 146, on Richardson Street, less than a mile from where he died. The flag outside the firehouse was lowered to half-staff, and inside, firefighters mourned the loss of a colleague they considered energetic and aggressive.

Mr. Scoppetta was asked at a briefing at Bellevue whether Firefighter Pujdak had been following Fire Department procedures before he died. He said he had “seemed to be doing everything he should have done.”

“It was just a tragic accident,” he added.

Mr. Scoppetta said the fire marshals had determined that the fire was accidental and was caused by “careless smoking.” Mr. Bloomberg said the fire and “the resulting death could have been prevented.”

But it was not clear how long the cigarette had been burning before the blaze broke out, and the mayor said the fire marshals had not established whose cigarette started the blaze. A woman who would give her name only as Erin said that she lived in the apartment and that the room that caught fire belonged to a roommate who is a smoker.

But she said that she had never seen the roommate smoking in the apartment. She also said the roommate usually came home later than when the fire was reported.

Daryl Khan, Andy Newman and Ethan Wilensky-Lanford contributed reporting.

[malana1]

WOW, This is hard news to hear.

RIP

[drags830]

Wow... Tough week... God bless him and his family and the FDNY. Rest easy brother...

[Pipeman2]

My thoughts and prayers go out your family and FDNY..

RIP Brother

RFB

[formerOHvolly]

It is with a heavy heart; already laden with the grief over the losses in Charleston; this family of firefighters extends its sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of Daniel F. Pujdak, as well as the members of FDNY, following his tragic passing. May the Good Lord raise him upon high and bring loving comfert to all touched by this sad occurance.

Rest and Peace, Brother

[ant195]

Rest in Peace Brother! Prayers go out to the FDNY community and His Familiy!

[coldfront]

My throughts and prayers are with this young man friends,family and fellow firefighters.

God Bless the FDNY!

[DennisTheMenace]

RIP! God bless our lost Brother, his family and friends.

[MarcusKspn]

Rest in peace brother, rest in peace...

[randsc]

May Gid welcome our brother Daniel, and be with his family in their time of grief.

[HeavyRescueTech]

another loss to our brotherhood.

[Hazmat91180]

RIP brother....

[RoughRider]

What a tough week.......
Rest in Peace my young Brother.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06222007...ens.htm?page=2

[kprsn1]

Thoughts and prayers to the FDNY and to the Pujdak family. Rest in peace brother.