Michael Esposito, 43, was a former Baldwin captain and a 21-year member of the department, Smith said. News 12 Long Island reported that Esposito apparently had a heart attack at the scene of a house fire on the 2800 block of Grand Avenue, but Smith and other officials did not confirm that report.
Smith said Esposito arrived at the fire and said he was not feeling well. Officials said an ambulance took Esposito to South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, where he died.
Nassau County police and fire officials declined to comment on the case Wednesday.
Esposito was unmarried and did not have children, officials said.
Nassau fire officials said the cause of the blaze is being investigated by the police Arson / Bomb Squad and by the Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office, but have not said whether investigators are considering the fire suspicious.
The fire, just north of Atlantic Avenue, was reported in a 911 call at 3:30 a.m., police said.
Smith called Esposito a "very friendly, outgoing guy," adding: "The department is saddened by his loss."
A banner bearing his name hung at the Baldwin fire house on Grand Avenue Wednesday morning.
The only other Baldwin firefighter to die in the line of duty was Stephen Barry, who was killed in June 1975, officials said.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
