Vito F. Altieri, former Huntington Manor fire chief and town fire commissioner, has died

In Vito F. Altieri’s 42 years as a Huntington Manor volunteer firefighter, he responded to calls that could keep him in the field for anywhere from minutes to many hours.

But one late August night in 1988, he got one that kept him away for two days.

“We had opened up a bottle of wine and we were sitting in front of the TV and a call came in,” his widow, Christine, said. “I thought he would be back in 10 minutes.”

An LIRR train had derailed at the Park Avenue crossing and crashed into a lumberyard. Diesel fuel was spewing from the engine.

Christine Altieri began to worry after hours passed and she still hadn’t heard from her husband. But she was relieved when the news came on and she saw her husband working at the crash scene.

Altieri and his crew managed to evacuate the passengers — among whom there were no deaths and just a handful of minor injuries — and prevent the lumberyard from becoming an inferno.

Altieri’s handling of the situation earned him a special title: “They called him the ‘Wreckmaster,’” his widow said.

Altieri died at home on May 9 from complications from a previous illness. He was 76.

Born in Brooklyn in 1943, Altieri attended Lafayette High in Brooklyn and joined the Army at 17. While stationed in Germany, he took up competitive shooting, which became a lifelong hobby.

He and friends would take part in competitions sporting Wild West regalia like ten-gallon hats and sheriff’s badges.

After the Army, Altieri settled in Huntington Manor and stayed there for the rest of his life, marrying Christine in 1984.

In 1974, he joined the Huntington Manor Fire Department and became chief within 12 years. He earned three medals of valor during his tenure, including one for rescuing three kids trapped in the basement apartment of a burning house.

He also helped put down a major fire at the Walt Whitman Mall in the early 1990s that made headlines. He was elected to three, five-year terms as a Huntington Town fire commissioner.

Altieri also ran All Island Auto Body on West Hills Road in Huntington.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter, Christina Marie Peredo of Dix Hills, his son, Michael of Ossining, and his sisters Emily Longo, Maria Cascio and Linda Altieri, all of Staten Island.