NEW YORK (AP) – It was a routine run: a small apartment fire, apparently caused by a careless smoker. For Daniel Pujdak, it was the last call of his brief career as a city firefighter.

The 23-year-old, with less than two years on the job, plunged 60 feet to his death Thursday afternoon after slipping from a ladder near the top of a four-story Brooklyn building, authorities said.

The firefighter had scaled the ladder carrying more than 100 pounds of equipment, including a power saw to cut a hole for smoke to escape through the building’s roof. Once at the top, he lost his footing.

“Tragically, this fire and resulting death could have been prevented,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at Bellevue Hospital, where Pujdak was pronounced dead after suffering massive head injuries. “The fire marshal believes the fire was caused by an unextinguished cigarette left by the window.”

Pudjak, the first FDNY fatality since 2006, died working at a job he had wanted since he was a child. His crew at Ladder 146 was called to the minor blaze at a brick building used by artists in the Williamsburg section.

The fire was confined to a window area on the fourth floor. It took 60 firefighters less than an hour to bring the blaze under control.

“The window sills were burning,” said fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. “That was the extent of the fire, we later learned.”

Scoppetta said the fire in the 87-year-old building initially appeared more serious. Fire marshals believed the blaze was accidental.

Bloomberg, after meeting with Pujdak’s parents, said they were devastated by the sudden death of their son.

Pujdak “always talked about helping people,” his brother Matthew told the Daily News. “He wanted to make people’s lives a little better.”

Pujdak, a fitness buff, was in training for a triathlon, longtime friend Matthew McCabe told the Daily News. And Pujdak had inspired his brother to aim to join the FDNY, even giving him a spare oxygen mask to use in training.

“I never worried about him,” said Matthew Pujdak. “I was confident that he could handle himself.”