1 dead, 3 injured in New York apartment building fire: FDNY
A 49-year-old man was killed and three people injured after a “suspicious” fire broke out on the top floor of a Brooklyn apartment building on Monday afternoon, authorities said.
Two people, believed to be workers in the building, fell from the top floor as flames and smoke engulfed part of the six-story building at 165 Rockaway Parkway in Brownsville. said firefighters.
They were both taken to the hospital after the FDNY arrived.
A resident of the building said she saw someone dangling from the top floor before falling.
“And just bounced on the lawn,” resident Dy’Sylvia Ponder told The Post.
The face of the other man who fell from the building was “torn open,” she said.
The sole fatality was a 49-year-old man who was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the NYPD said.
It is unclear if the fatality was one of the two people who fell from the top floor.
Footage from the scene showed two people kneeling next to a man lying motionless on the ground in front of the building.
“They took it into their own hands and yes, it probably would have been better if they hadn’t, but they did and got out,” FDNY Vice President Jim Carney said of the two victims who died from the top floor fell .
Carney said during a news conference that department staff had classified the fire as “suspicious.” The investigation is not yet complete.
About 60 firefighters and rescue workers were on the scene within minutes, Carney said.
One of the three injured victims escaped with only minor injuries, the FDNY said.
A witness on the street heard an explosion before the fire broke out.
“Boom!” Corpus Hernandez told The Post. “Then I heard the screaming, then the screaming out the window, the person out the window, then the two workers were out the window.”
He said one of the workers had a “dent on his head” after the fall.
“I was shocked myself that he was still breathing,” Hernandez said.
A resident of the building’s first floor said she heard possible altercations before the fire broke out. People panicked as they exited the building.
“A lot of shouting, everyone was unpredictable because we didn’t know where the explosion was coming from,” Milagros Arias said. “We actually thought the building would collapse.”
