Devastating Fire at a Queens building. Photo collected from online
Minara Helen: Four people including one child were killed when a four-alarm inferno ripped through a Queens building Monday, with fire department officials calling it a “tragic day.”
The blaze erupted around 12:30 p.m. inside the three-story building on College Point Boulevard near Avery Avenue in Flushing that housed a business on the ground floor and apartments on the two levels above, the FDNY said.
Heavy fire engulfed the entire building, with three people jumping from the upper floors to escape the flames, said FDNY Chief of Fire Operations Kevin Woods. Two adults and one “pediatric” victim succumbed to their injuries at the scene, according to Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore.
A fourth adult died upon arrival at the hospital, the NYPD said. “This is a difficult and tragic day,” Bonsignore said.
Five others were hospitalized with injuries, said Assistant Chief of EMS Operations Cesar Escobar.
More information about the victims was not immediately released. The cause of the blaze remained under investigation.
Six firefighters were also hospitalized with minor injuries, including two hurt when the stairs collapsed, the department said.
“As our engine companies were moving in from the first floor and up the stairs to the second floor, the stairs collapsed, and those two members were trapped in the stairs,” Woods said.
One person who became trapped on the second floor was helped by firefighters who used a portable ladder, the chief said.
Flames were still rising from an attic window of the brick building more than two hours after the 911 call. “It was really bad. The fire was coming out of the windows in huge orange flames, just tons of smoke,” local resident Yadira Montoya, 39, said.
“I was praying so hard that everyone got out safe, because when you see a fire that bad, you know you’re looking at death. And then I saw them wheeling out a man in a stretcher and they were doing CPR on him, and I thought to myself, that man can’t have survived that.”
Another resident, Chen Meilin, 28, said the whole scene was “so scary.”
“Everything was quiet and then the street just lit up in fire and smoke,” Meilin said. “The firetrucks got here really quickly – amazingly quickly. But the fire got so big so fast, it almost felt like the flames were going to jump across the street and light the next building on fire.”
The fire was placed under control by about 2:45 p.m. after 74 FDNY units, including 231 fire and EMS personnel, responded to the scene, officials said.
The building suffered “heavy, heavy damage” from the blaze, Woods said.
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