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by Eyewitness News' Ken Rosato
(New York-WABC) — It's part of the job they rarely speak of, nor think about when they run into a fire to save us. Richard Sclafani ran into a Brooklyn fire Sunday, but unfortunately never came out.
Today, he becomes the second fireman in two days to be remembered by his brothers, the second of three lost last Sunday.
Ken Rosato is live in the Huguenot section of Staten Island, with more. It's a sea of blue here at our Lady's Star of the Sea Catholic church. Mayor Bloomberg joined Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scopetta and thousands of firefighters from near and far to pay their last respects to firefighter Richard Sclafani.
The Baysides, Queens resident worked with ladder company 103 in Brooklyn until Sunday afternoon, when he was killed while searching for victims inside the basement of a burning house at 577 Jerome Street in East New York.
As Sclafani became separated from other members of his company he was found minutes later unconscious and severely burned, on the staircase of the house's basement.
He was rushed to Brookdale hospital, but he died there a short time later.
Sclafani's death Sunday, along with those of two other firefighters in the Bronx, made the day the deadliest for the department since 9-11.
Commenting on Sclafani, one family friend said he always wanted to run in first because he was single, and he saw it as his duty--to protect the lives of his friends who had wives and kids.
Meanwhile, the third of the firefighters killed in two separate fires last week will be laid to rest Saturday morning.
Funeral services for Lt. Curtis Meyran are set for tomorrow at ten at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Malverne.
Meyran was killed alongside firefighter John Bellew battling a fire in the Bronx. Bellew was buried on Thursday.
In related news, one of the firemen who survived jumping from that fire in the Bronx has suffered a major setback.
Firefighter Joseph Dibernardo of Staten Island had been listed in critical condition. But he's now said to be in very critical condition after suffering a collapsed lung last night.
Dibernardo's father says doctors had to revive him, and worked five hours to save him.
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