Firefighter Gordon Ambelas died Saturday night while trying to rescue victims from a burning building in Brooklyn.
The 40-year-old husband and father became a lieutenant just under a year ago after serving the FDNY for 14 years.
“The lieutenant died doing what officers do—searching for life,” Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said, reported the New York Post.
Fellow firefighters found Ambelas unconscious on the 19th floor with severe head burns.
“By the time his brother officers found him, he had already sustained life-threatening injuries,” Nigro said.
Last month, Ambelas was one of several firefighters to save a 7-year-old boy who was caught in a roll-up gate.
Mayor de Blasio visited Ambelas in the hospital. “We lost a real hero tonight and our hearts are heavy,” he told the Associated Press. He asks “every New Yorker to keep the lieutenant in their prayers.”
Two other officers on the scene were hospitalized with minor injuries, as well as two individuals who lived in the building.