Wiedmann, 38, of Islip Terrace, will have the surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, where he is recovering, said Dr. Roger W. Yurt, burn-center director.
The firefighter, who remains in critical condition, is expected to be there for six to eight weeks and have at least one surgery a week. Most of his injuries were third-degree burns.
"There's a long road to go," Yurt said of the operations, which will include skin grafts.
From his hospital bed, Wiedmann has been more concerned for his family than himself, his brother Douglas Wiedmann said Thursday at a news conference at the hospital.
"They're doing everything they can to make him comfortable," said Douglas Wiedmann, 35, of Baldwin. "They're taking very good care of our hero."
Yurt said that in general a burn victim is hospitalized one day for each percent of his or her body injured in a fire, Yurt said.
Wiedmann and fellow Rescue 2 firefighter James Gersbeck, 52, of Port Jefferson Station, were searching the front of the third floor of a residential building Monday morning when hot gas erupted into a ball of fire and came barreling at them.
Gersbeck, a 25-year veteran, tumbled down a stairway while Wiedmann, a 14-year veteran, waited for an aerial ladder at a third-story front window.
Gersbeck was less seriously hurt, with second- and third-degree burns, and made it out by himself. He was in fair condition Thursday and is "up and around," Yurt said.
FDNY Chief of Operations Robert Sweeney said Thursday that the fire remained under investigation but isn't considered suspicious. The inquiry is expected to last a couple of weeks and will examine issues such as the response time and what caused the flash over.
"We're trying to find out, was it something we did, or was it inevitable that this room was going to flash over at that particular moment in time?" Sweeney said.
The blaze is not considered suspicious, a fire official said.
Douglas Wiedmann said his brother can use a board with letters of the alphabet to spell out what he's trying to say.
"It's very frustrating for him," he said.
Wiedmann, who is married with three children, has been asking how his family and fellow firefighters are doing, he said.
"He's asking how we are. He's more worried about us than he's worried about himself," Douglas Wiedmann said.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
