Legendary Massapequa firefighter Karl Thuge, 97, dies, served eight decades

On a bitter, cold winter day in 1967, Karl Thuge steered a ladder truck onto the sand, threw a double-trussed ladder across the ice, and helped pull a child, a dog and a stranded adult to safety.

The heroic act was just one of the tens of thousands of calls he answered during a firefighting career that stretched more than 80 years.

Thuge, an ex-fire chief and a 58-year member of Massapequa’s Engine Company 4 and a former Lynbrook fire chief and honorary commissioner, died on Monday, Sept. 29. He was 97.

Over the course of his storied career, Thuge answered more than 20,000 fire and rescue calls and laid much of the foundation that the department rests on today, according to the company.

Among his many milestones, Thuge — while serving in the chief’s office — drove Lynbrook’s 1927 Ahrens-Fox fire engine to its final working fire. He also secured approval for Instalert paging for more than 240 members, replacing the horns and ticker tape system.

In 1953, at the scene of a train crash in Rockville Centre involving two trains at an elevated crossing, he saved the life of a motorman trapped in the cab, using a tourniquet.

As a lieutenant, he saved a police officer trapped in a second-floor fire, and as an assistant chief, he saved a fire chief who had become lost in the smoke.

Thuge also ran several solo responses, driving the rig, securing a water supply and stretching a line himself. When he stopped actively responding in his late 80s, he continued his service by having his aide drive him to the firehouse to fill a cooler with water to transport to the scene of incidents.

Thuge is survived by four children; nine grandchildren, including Massapequa firefighter Douglas O’Leary; and six great-grand children.

Visitation for Thuge was held on Friday at the Massapequa Funeral Home’s North Chapel, followed by a department service that evening.

Funeral services took place Saturday at Community United Methodist Church in Massapequa Park, with interment at Grace Church Cemetery.

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