Brooklyn -A firefighter was killed fighting a three-alarm blaze in Brooklyn Monday, sources said.
Lt. Richard Nappi, 47, of Farmingville, L.I., was taken in cardiac arrest to Woodhull Medical Center, where he died.
“He was a comedian and a warm-hearted person,” said a fellow Brooklyn firefighter who last worked with Nappi a year ago. “He was a nice guy.”
Five more firefighters with non-life-threatening injuries were taken to Kings County Hospital, officials said.
The fire broke out on the second floor of a warehouse on Flushing Ave. near Evergreen Ave. in Bushwick around 1 p.m. after a pile of cardboard ignited, officials said.
The fire may have started after an air conditioner overloaded, a fire department source said.
“It was very bad,” said witness Jose Rueda, 56.
“There were lots of flames and smoke. They couldn’t put it out. They took a fireman out on a stretcher. He wasn’t moving. Then they took four more out and put them into an ambulance.”
Ironically, the building is the headquarters of American Medical Response Brooklyn, which according to its website, employs some 200 paramedics and EMTs and handles about 54,000 emergency calls a year.
The city’s Office of Emergency Management also leases storage space in the building, officials said, but the fire was not in their area.
The fire was brought under control about 4 p.m.
The last firefighter to die battling a blaze was Lt. Robert Ryan, who died in November 2008 fighting a Staten Island house fire.
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