by Warren Woodberry Jr. and Carrie Melago
Waving and giving a thumbs-up, a firefighter injured by falling construction equipment at the Deutsche Bank building left the hospital yesterday.
About 150 applauding firefighters created a ring around William Corbetis, 50, as he was wheeled out of St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan around 10 a.m.
Corbetis suffered serious injuries when he was nearly struck by a falling pallet jack on Aug.23, days after a blaze at the doomed building claimed the lives of two other firefighters.
"Thank you all very much. I appreciate it," said Corbetis, who wore an FDNY baseball cap. "Thank you for all your help and support. Everybody - the hospital staff and all the doctors that worked on me."
Corbetis had his spleen removed, needed 100 stitches in his head and sustained a broken rib and fractured vertebrae in the accident. His colleague from Engine 258 in Long Island City, Neil Nally, suffered minor injuries.
"I'm feeling better," Corbetis said yesterday, adding that everyone's support "gives me the strength to get better sooner."
Meanwhile, the FDNY is interviewing numerous senior fire chiefs who were in the building from March to May looking for human remains but never mentioned the unsafe conditions.
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