The distressed 18 year old ran away from responding FDNY firefighters and leaped to his death from atop a 10-story East Harlem apartment building.
Sept. 19, 2021 – By Elizabeth Keogh – Source New York Daily News
A Manhattan teen died Saturday when he jumped from the roof of his apartment building as firefighters fought a kitchen blaze in his 10th-floor apartment, witnesses and authorities said.
Firefighters responded at 4:23 p.m. to 440 E. 105th St., a New York City Housing Authority building in East Harlem.
When firefighters arrived at the 10th floor apartment, Jamel Martinez, 18, fled, said police sources.
Martinez’s family was not home at the time, said the sources. Witnesses said Martinez jumped from the building’s roof.
“He was a sweet kid. Respectable, decent, loving and caring. Just a beautiful kid,” said a 10th-floor neighbor. She added that Martinez had recently graduated from high school.
The neighbor said she and her daughter were napping in their home when the fire broke out.
“All of a sudden, we couldn’t see,” the neighbor said. “There was smoke everywhere.”
Firefighters banged on her door and told her and her daughter to stay put, the woman said.
But when they were able, they got out.
“We got up and we ran because the apartment was filling up with smoke,” she said. “We couldn’t breathe. We just ran.”
Twenty Fire Department units and 80 firefighters responded to the scene, officials said.
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