by VERONKIA BELENKAYA
Wading through a smoke-filled midtown apartment, a rookie firefighter and another of the city's Bravest rescued a man early yesterday from a fast-moving blaze, officials said. Probationary Firefighter Steven Leible and Firefighter Bill Murak were the first men from Ladder 21 to enter the darkened third-floor apartment on W. 36th St. just after 7 a.m.
"We got into the apartment and it was pretty smoky," said Murak, 30, who has been with the FDNY for three years. "We couldn't see anything."
After a few minutes of groping through the pitch-black apartment, Leible spotted the source of the blaze, a mattress engulfed in flames. Then, next to the fire, he saw a man who needed help.
"I came to put out the fire and saw the man's leg on the floor. He was covered in blankets," said Leible, 31, who graduated from the Fire Academy in August.
"It feels great to help people out - that's what I signed onto the job to do."
The semiconscious man, Richard Foster, 68, was breathing on his own but had to be carried to safety by the firefighters as their FDNY brethren put out the blaze.
"We were like, 'Wow, we really got that guy out - good!" said Murak, adding that this was his first rescue. "You go on instinct and training. You don't have time to think, you know you're not in a controlled situation."
Foster, a retiree who had lived in the building for more than 30 years, was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital where he was in stable condition. Fire officials were investigating whether the fire began because Foster had been smoking in bed.
"He's an older gentleman - a nice guy," said Chris Buiciuc, 36, the building's superintendent, "But I guess he smokes too much and he fell asleep."
With Jonathan Lemire
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