Mayor Honors Firefighter Killed One Year Ago

A firefighter is being honored on the anniversary of his death in a blaze that filled a Brooklyn high-rise with smoke.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Lt. John H. Martinson one of "the bravest of the bravest" while dedicating a plaque to the fallen firefighter on Saturday.

The 40-year-old Martinson was trapped in a burning apartment at the Ebbets Field Houses complex on Jan. 3, 2008. Officials said he got separated from a group of firefighters he had led onto the smoky floor.

A 6-year-old boy accidentally started the blaze by putting a piece of holiday wrapping paper on a lighted stove, then trying to hide the burning paper under a bed.

Martinson died when his wife, Jessica, was pregnant with their second child. The baby, Katherine Grace, is now seven months old.