A second firefighter died Monday after becoming trapped in the basement of a discount store during a vicious fire. Lt. Howard Carpluk, 43, died at Montefiore Medical Center, a day after the blaze claimed the life of rookie firefighter Michael Reilly, 25, said assistant fire chief of operations Robert Sweeney.

“The loss of these two heroic firefighters will stay with all of us for the rest of our careers and the rest of our lives,” Sweeney said.

Carpluk, from Yaphank on Long Island, is a 20-year veteran who is survived by his wife and two children, ages 10 and 14.

It was the deadliest day for New York City firefighters since two died after jumping from the fourth floor of a blazing building in the Bronx in January 2005. On that same day? – dubbed “Black Sunday”? – a firefighter in Brooklyn died while searching a home for survivors of a blaze.

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, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The firefighters had to be given oxygen through a special hose before the rubble could be partially cleared and they could be pulled out.

“I ask all New Yorkers to take a moment and say a prayer for the firefighter that we lost,” said Bloomberg, who recalled meeting Reilly at his graduation ceremony this year, shaking his hand and presenting him with a plaque.

Several injured firefighters were seen coming out of the gutted store, which sold discounted toiletries, kitchen supplies and knickknacks. About 20 were treated for smoke inhalation.

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 Jacobi Medical Center. The other trapped firefighter, Wayne Walters, 36, was released.
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