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A 23-year-old firefighter died from injuries sustained while responding to a fire at 146 Leonard Street in East Williamsburg. Daniel Pujdak, a 2-year veteran with Ladder 146, fell four floors from a bucket ladder and suffered serious head injuries; he was pronounced dead at Bellevue shortly after. Over 60 firefighters were needed to control the fire, which allegedly started because of a cigarette left on a window sill.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said that Pujdak was carrying a saw to cut ventilation holes; it seems he may have slipped when he was getting out. Scoppetta said it seemed that Pujdak was following FDNY rules.
A neighbor told the Post, "It looked like he just hurtled and hit the ground. I couldn’t even scream. He was standing on the roof. It looked like he was overcome by smoke ... There was so much smoke on that level." The Post adds that the site "housed a four-story, formerly industrial building that had been 'illegally' converted into residential lofts," according to neighbors. One of the apartment's residents spoke to the NY Times; she confirmed that the roommate who lived in the room where the fire allegedly started was a smoker, but that she had never seen the roommate smoke in the apartment. And "She also said the roommate usually came home later than when the fire was reported."
Mayor Bloomberg met with Pujdak's family and said, "As you would expect, they are devastated. It's a terrible loss for the family and a terrible loss for this entire city. It reminds us just how dangerous firefighting is and how much we owe the men and women who put their lives on the line everyday."
There are profiles of Pujdak from the Daily News and NY Times. Pujdak lived in Queens, was raised in Greenpoint and attended St. Francis Prep and SUNY Cortland; he had worked as a personal trainer at the YMCA in Greenpoint before joining the FDNY (the Times reports he did personal training part-time after becoming a firefighter, too). A fire chief told the News, "He talked about the work constantly. He loved being a fireman," while a lieutenant told the Times, "People see us playing with water or whatever, but what they don’t realize is that two minutes after they see us we could be crawling down a hallway or falling off a roof, which is what happened to this 23-year-old kid. At any given time we can go out on a job and not come back.” And his younger brother Matthew is planning on joining the FDNY. The FDNY has update its website with information about Pujdak: "Firefighter Pujdak is the 1,135th member of the New York City Fire Department to make the Supreme Sacrifice in the Department's 143-year history."
It's a sad week for the FDNY: The FDNY is sending some firefighters and members of the Emerald Society of Pipes and Drums Band to the memorial service of nine Charleston firefighters who died earlier this week. And they honored doctors at Bronx Lebanon and Montefiore hospitals who tried to save two firefighters last year.
Top photograph of 146 Leonard Street and lower photograph of firefighters on the scene by hesastud on Flickr
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Wow, I live around the corner and I just got home for the day and I was wondering why Stagg and Scholes were blocked off from traffic from Lorimer.
The fire was apparently started by some asshole smoker. They should be charged with murder.
He was just a baby...
Thank you Mr. Tudjak for keeping us safe. You'll be remembered. This is my neighborhood. Thanks for keeping us safe.
Per the NY Times and the links in your article, the firefighter's last name is "Pujdak," not "Tudjak." I really don't mind typos on Gothamist generally, but that's pretty egregious considering this was a firefighter who lost his life serving the people of New York. Could you please correct it?
It's really sad. It sounds like it was a terrible accident during what would have been a routine call.
Re guest 4: Other accounts listed the spelling of his name as "Tudjak," only one had Pujdak. I decided to go with the spelling in the AP, Post and WNBC (which changed the spelling) before I went to bed. You can see here, early reports did have the other spelling, though the articles themselves have changed.
Thanks Williamsburg hipsters. I guess it is more important to sit around and smoke in your artist loft (as they are calling it on the news) than to care about anyone else. I hope the punk is charged with murder too. I wonder if the hipsters will make an ironic t-shirt about it. Just gets me so mad, sorry.
There was apparently a lot of confusion early on re the firefighter's last name. I wrote comment 4 after checking several news sites and seeing only "Pujdak," but clearly Jen, you had checked several sources too and made a reasonable assumption. I'm sorry for being rude-- I realize it wasn't carelessness. At any rate, the FDNY website, www.nyc.gov/fdny, is listing it as "Pujdak."
If anyone needs yet another of the millions of reasons to quit smoking, here it is.
Could we not get all up and down on artists and smokers over one jackass's jackass move? I'm not sure that's the best way to rememer Firefighter Pujdak or honor the others who keep the nabe safe. I had relatives who were careless with their cigarettes and we used to get on them, it could easily have been a senior citizen in a project in Bensonhurst as an artist in a loft in Williamsburg.
The heroism of the FDNY is that they don't screen the building to see who lives there before they put their lives on the line and go into the fire.
i thought the city was vigilant about these illegally converted lofts?
they should really shut them all down
forest fires are also usually started by people tossing cigarettes out the windows of their cars. same with a lot of house fires - cigarettes and mattresses don't mix.
sad loss and a waste of life.
Fucking smoker idiots.
for what it's worth, all those hipsters living in those illegally converted lofts lost everything and weren't covered by insurance
I'm sorry, Tim N., but yes we SHOULD get down on smokers. Smoking makes people suffer in so many ways and destroys countless lives, and I'm sure the many firefighters whose lives would be saved by fewer smokers would rather be honored alive than dead.
If we get down on smokers, we should definately do the same with alcohol drinkers.
Are these illegally converted lofts? When is the city going to crack down on all these building violations? anyone remember the midtown rape in THAT Commercial building?
I didn't know this firefighter personally, but he went to my high school, St. Francis Prep, where his dad also taught. Mr. Pudjak was one of the best teachers I had in all years of education. My heart goes out to the Pudjak family.
Everyone is getting down on the smoker, who MAY have caused the fire. What about the greedy landlords in that nabe that illegally convert these fire trap loft spaces into a hipster haven. I used to live in that hood and the landlords would swear that the building was legal, when in fact it was not. I found out the hard way, but at tleast I'm still alive
Agreed on these buildings...I lived in one in Greenpoint, and when there was a fire, however minor, the firefighters would show up having no idea where anything in the building was located (stairs, shafts, electric). Once I actually had to flag down the fire truck at the end of the block because there was no building number on the building- they had no idea where to go. Not safe at all.
yeah those places are fire death traps, its just a shame that a brave fireman had to die and not one of the trust fund hipsters
this world sucks, there is a deer trapped in the small trail area behind my house in yonkers, there is little forest and no place for him to go since there are houses surrounding the entire place
this world man
we could think of a better way could we?
"East Williamsburg" which is really Bushwick. Those lofts are forever advertised on craigslist by lecherous RE owners trying to circumvent rules and make quick cashm. This is a horrible situation, but one could only hope it serves to bring to light what these unscrupulous vultures are doing. The building probably wasn;t up to code for residential living either.
Perhaps if smoking wasn't banned from bars theis guy wouldn't have been smoking at home.
If you really don't like smokers, then call for an out-right ban on cigarettes. Don't pussyfoot around because you still want big business to make money and you still want to collect taxes.
Get this - alcohol kills mroe firemen every year than smokers.
its just a shame that a brave fireman had to die and not one of the trust fund hipsters
you're really no better than a turd for wishing death upon anyone (I bet your wish wouldn't have extended to a building of families with smoking parents).
what about all the people carelessly using candles during blackouts, or for that matter smokers of any demographic?
I used to live 2 blocks away in what was "technically" a legal 3 family building. after I requested a check by the DOB, they cited numerous violations (which of course were never fixed). I feared for my life in that building, and I've never even been a smoker.
{{for what it's worth, all those hipsters living in those illegally converted lofts lost everything and weren't covered by insurance}}
Ha Ha. Too fucking bad for them. Probably doing illegal drugs anyway which started the fire.
Likely not accidental, but due to deliberate negligence or something worse. I am sure that mommy & daddy will either send a check or they are covered under their insurance.
We all know how Pot, Coke & Meth are big among most of these 'transplanted hipsters' but cops look the other way while they bust people for such crimes as driving without a seatbelt, and walking in the wrong neighborhood while black.
If you seriously think anyone should give a rats ass about these idiot hipsters losing everything not 'covered by insurance'. I bet the city comes up with some ridiculous settlement if the families start threatening lawsuits.
Firstly, the people living here probably had nothing of value anyway. They'll just move back to Ohio or whatever, defeated.
Seriously, East Williamsburg is just a name that real estate types invented to sell or rent property in that area ONE HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS AGO! East Williamsburg has existed for a long time. This neighborhood just is not Bushwick. It's Williamsburg -- it's not even in the East Williamsburg Park zone.
So sad. This fire started by a careless smoker. The SC furniture store fire started by a careless smoker. Ten firefighters dead this week thanks to good ol' nicotine addiction.
I know the people living in that apartment. They are exactly the type of obnoxious middle to upper middle class entitled brats people have assumed they are. It doesn't surprise me that once of them did something so careless like leaving a cigarette on a wooden windowsill. I would not be surprised if one of them said that the firemen planted it to frame them.
I hope that that careless person is forever haunted by guilt.
WHO CARES IF THESE HIPPIE LOFT GOERS INSURANCE DIDNT COVER FOR THERE FURNITURE..THATS THE LEAST OF WORRIES .. WHAT MATTERS IS THAT A YOUNG MAN WHO LIVED HIS LIFE RISKING HIS LIFE EVERY DAY FOR US AND OUR COMMUNITY ..IS GONE NOW BEACUSE OF SOME ONES NEGLECT .. I LIVE A HALF OF A BLOCK AWAY FROM THAT " LOFT "..AND NO MATTER HOW COLD A PERSON CAN BE THIS TRAGEDY WOULD TOUCH YOUR HEART ESPECIALLY WHEN IT HAPPENS SO CLOSE TO HOME .I HEARD OF THE STORY WHILE ON VACATION .. BEACUSE MY HUSBAND AND CHILDREN HAD A HARD TIME REACHING OUR APARTMENT JUST A HALF BLOCK FROM THE ACCIDENT SITE ..WHAT WAS SO IRONIC IS THAT LATER THAT EVENING I COME TO FIND OUT DANIEL HAPPEN TO BE THE SON OF MY NEPHEWS TEACHER .. I WAS TAKEN BACK BY THAT AND COULD NOT START TO EVEN REMOTELY FEEL WHAT SHE WAS FEELING AS A MOTHER ..I ATTENDED HIS WAKE AND I WILL TELL YOU I WAITED ABOUT 2 HOURS TO PAY MY RESPECT TO FIREFIGHTER PUJDAK AND HIS FAMILY .. AND THERES NO CITY LIKE N.Y.C.... WITH THAT SAID I HOPE THIS WILL TEACH EVERYONE A VALUABLE LESSON .. IF YOU GONA SMOKE BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS BUT ABOVE ALL A BIT MORE CAUTIOUS .. A YOUNG MANS LIFE HAS BEEN TAKEN DUE TO OUR EVERDAY NEGLECT..