By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- A fire broke out around 7:45 a.m. Wednesday in a fourth-floor apartment on Montgomery Avenue in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx.
- A 31-year-old man escaped the burning apartment by jumping from the fourth-floor window and was taken to Jacobi Hospital in critical but stable condition.
- A second man, identified by neighbors as the injured man’s uncle, was found dead inside the apartment.
- Five civilians and four FDNY firefighters were also injured; 140 firefighters and EMS personnel responded as the fire grew to two alarms and spread to an adjacent unit, two apartments above and the cockloft.
- FDNY fire marshals are investigating the cause, including whether the fire was intentionally set, after neighbors reported seeing someone light a small fire in the building’s hallway hours earlier; the Red Cross has assisted 65 residents displaced by the blaze.
NEW YORK — A fire that broke out in a fourth-floor Bronx apartment early Wednesday killed one man and forced another to escape by jumping from a window, according to the FDNY and witnesses.
The fire was reported around 7:45 a.m. in a building on Montgomery Avenue near West 174th Street in the Morris Heights neighborhood. A 31-year-old man escaped the apartment by jumping from the fourth-floor window and was taken to Jacobi Hospital in critical but stable condition, police said. A second man was found dead inside the apartment; neighbors identified him as the injured man’s uncle, saying the two shared the unit. Officials had not officially confirmed the deceased man’s identity as of Wednesday.
Witness Uneek Valentin, who lives on the fifth floor of the building, said she saw the incident unfold from her window. “I ran into my kid’s room. When I opened the door to their room, it was filled with black smoke,” Valentin said. “I rushed to get them out. I’ve been burned out of my apartment. Everything has been destroyed. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Five additional civilians and four FDNY firefighters were injured in the response, fire officials said. The blaze grew to two alarms and spread to an adjacent apartment, two units above, and the cockloft between the top floor and roof; officials said wind may have contributed to how quickly it spread. A total of 140 firefighters and EMS personnel responded to the scene.
FDNY fire marshals had not determined a cause as of Wednesday. An FDNY spokeswoman said investigators are examining all possibilities, including whether the fire was intentionally set, after neighbors reported seeing someone light a small fire in the building’s fourth-floor hallway roughly five hours before the apartment fire broke out. Fire marshals have been interviewing witnesses and collecting security footage from residents and neighboring buildings.
The American Red Cross has assisted 65 residents displaced by the fire in finding temporary housing.