This undated photo provided by the New York City Fire Department shows New York City Fire Department Lieutenant Richard Nappi. Nappi, 47, a 17-year veteran of the FDNY, collapsed while fighting a large warehouse fire in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Monday, April 16, 2012. He died after being transported to the hospital. (AP Photo/FDNY)
A New York City fire lieutenant from Long Island, who responded to the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, died fighting a blaze at a Brooklyn warehouse on Monday.
Lt. Richard Nappi, 47, of Farmingville led Engine Company 237 into the blaze around 1 p.m. when the 17-year FDNY veteran became overheated, suffered from exhaustion and collapsed, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
He was rushed to Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Brooklyn where he died.
Bloomberg said multiple units responded to the blaze and it was brought under control around 4 p.m. More than 100 firefighters responded to the fire, officials said.
New York City Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano said the fire is under investigation, but the blaze started in a way that was not “out of the ordinary,” the Associated Press reported.
Nappi leaves behind a wife, Mary Anne, and two children, a 12-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son.
“I just spent some time with Mary Anne who is here to express the condolences of all the people of New York and thanked them for the ultimate sacrifice that their family made to keep New Yorkers safe,” Bloomberg said.
Before joining the FDNY, Nappi was a State Parole Officer and a case worker for the Suffolk County Department of Social Services.
Nappi was assigned to Engine 7 in Lower Manhattan “where he responded to the valor to the World Trade Center attacks…he helped save and rebuild our city in ways that all New Yorkers—in fact, people all over the world—understand,” the mayor said.
He added: “But his role in saving and rebuilding New York City every day over his entire 17-year career at the FDNY is far less understood, and that’s what I wanted to honor.”
Nappi also moonlighted as a volunteer firefighter and Deputy Chief Instructor with the Suffolk County Fire Academy in Yaphank.
The Fire Academy remembered Nappi as a “vibrant” person who wanted to pass on his knowledge to future firefighters.
“I was devastated when I heard it,” said Chief Richard Stockinger, executive director at the Fire Academy, who hired Nappi seven years ago. “Knowing Rich, being such a full of life person, very vibrant very humorous, he always had a smile on his face, and you hear something like this…we’re all in shock here.”
He noted that Nappi had a gene born into him that made him want to become a firefighter.
“His whole life was his family and his fire service,” Stockinger added.
Nappi is the first member of the FDNY to die in the line of duty since firefighter Paul Warhola of Engine 221 died in 2009.
