By Pam Zubeck
The Gazette
Copyright 2007 The Gazette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Lt. Howard “Howie” Carpluk Jr. and firefighter Michael Riley were fighting a store fire in New York City on Aug. 27, 2006, when the floor beneath them gave way.
Pitched into the basement, they were buried in rubble within minutes when the roof collapsed on them. Riley, who had survived a tour as a Marine in Iraq and had been in the fire service a few weeks, died instantly.
Carpluk, a 20-year fire veteran, died the following day.
The two Bronx firefighters were among the 114 fallen firefighters and emergency medical professionals from the United States and Canada honored Saturday at this year’s International Association of Fire Fighters’ Memorial Observance at Memorial Park.
The event drew thousands of firefighters, friends and family from across the continent to a ceremony rich in tradition and ritual, including the ringing of the bell to signal the fallen’s task is done.
Scores of bagpipers wailed “Amazing Grace” while dozens of IAFF local chapter flags fluttered under sunny skies. Many in the audience wiped away tears as the Air Force Academy cadet chorale sang “The Last Full Measure of Devotion.”
Among them was Marlise Pagano whose dad, Capt. Joseph Pagano, Jr., of Middletown, Conn., collapsed of a heart attack on Nov. 3, 2006, while doing paperwork in the station after a run to a car crash.
“I didn’t worry about him, because he was a really good fireman,” said his wife, Linda, who was accompanied by the couple’s other daughter, Justine. “He was strong. Never sick. I knew his job was dangerous, but I never thought about it. He never complained about it.”
Pagano was 52 and planned to retire in six months, she said. Heart attacks are the top killer of firefighters.
Theodore Abriel Sr., 44, also died of a heart attack while fighting a high-rise apartment blaze in Albany, N.Y., on Feb. 19.
Snow covered the ground when the 4 p.m. call came in, the second of the day for the station, said his friend, Sam Fresina, president of the IAFF Local 2007.
“They made their way up six flights of stairs to the sixth floor, conducted a search and assisted in extinguishing the fire,” Fresina said. “They were on their way back when he had a heart attack.
“We did CPR right away and moved him to the elevator and attempted to resuscitate him from the scene all the way to the hospital, which was a couple miles away.”
When the effort failed, Fresina said, “We were numb, mad, anxious.” Abriel had a legacy in the fire service: His father was a battalion chief, his brother a retired captain and another brother, a deputy chief.
When a firefighter delivered the triangular-folded flag to Michael Riley’s family, his mother broke down.
“He had only been in the firehouse for a few weeks,” Battalion Chief Brian Fink said, recounting the Bronx store fire. “He made it from Iraq. He comes out of the (fire) academy and three to four weeks later, he’s dead.”
Fink was especially broken up over Carpluk’s death, his friend of five years. Asked how his friend, Howie, felt about the fire service, Fink’s face brightened with a wide smile.
“He loved it,” he said. “The bigger the fire, the more he wanted to go.”