The most severely injured victim was naked when he was rescued from his apartment by firefighters.
nypost.com
Massive 3-alarm Bronx fire leaves 5 people fighting for their lives
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Published Nov. 17, 2023
Updated Nov. 17, 2023, 7:14 p.m. ET
Five people were injured and a beloved family dog died Friday after a raging inferno raced through an apartment building in the Bronx — with one tenant hurt so badly that witnesses thought he was dead.
The three-alarm fire broke out on the top floor of a six-story H-shaped tower in the 2300 block of Holland Avenue in the Allerton section of the Bronx just after 6 a.m., according to the FDNY.
The flames quickly spread through the top of the building, drawing a massive FDNY response within minutes, with nearly 140 firefighters taking close to an hour and a half to get it under control.
One tenant, a 48-year-old man who has not been identified, was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in critical condition. Three others went to the same hospital with minor injuries, cops said.
A fifth person was treated on scene, officials said. The relationships between the victims were not immediately known.
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The apartment building’s superintendent told The Post that the critically injured man was wearing only a pair of briefs when he was carried down to the lobby by first responders.
A tenant who has lived in the building for 40 years said it took four firefighters to carry him downstairs.
“They just dropped him on the floor … like a sack of potatoes,” she said, adding that she thought the man was dead.
The firefighters then ran back upstairs to search for additional victims, the tenant said.
Paramedics soon arrived and quickly went to work trying to revive the man.
Karina Miranda, 40, who lives on the first floor in the building, said she also thought her neighbor was dead.
She said his face and right arm were covered in burns so she grabbed a black-and-white checkered blanket, eerily matching the lobby floor tiles, and draped it over the unconscious man.
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A raging fire engulfed the top floor of a six-story apartment building in the Bronx early Friday.ABC 7
Cynthia Aikens, 63, who lives in the apartment next to the one where the fire ignited, told The Post that she was watching television over a cup of coffee when she smelled smoke and heard a fire alarm go off.
“I was the first one to call the fire department as soon as I saw the smoke,” Aikens said.
The woman, who walks with a cane, dashed outside her apartment as quickly as she could and began banging on the door of her next-door neighbor in unit 6A and screaming, because she said she could hear someone inside.
“I was trying to get someone to say something,” Aikenes recounted. “I don’t hear nothing and I touched the door and the door was hot.”
The woman then returned to her apartment to alert her roommate.
By then, she said the smoke was so black and thick that she could not see anything.
“It was difficult breathing and we couldn’t see,” she said. “It was very scary, very horrible. I just wouldn’t wish that on nobody.”
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It took about 138 firefighters more than an hour to get the blaze under control. CITIZEN
Aikens’ neighbor was eventually rescued from his fire-engulfed apartment, having suffered burns to the back of his head and his left shoulder.
“He was naked, but they covered him with a blanket. They were doing chest compressions,” she said. “I saw the soot on his face. His face was black from the smoke. His eyes were opened up. When they were doing compressions, you can see… his body jolting.”
One neighbor described him as “a quiet man” who likely lived alone in the apartment.
“I see him sometimes going to work, or he’ll go on his vacation,” the neighbor said. “He don’t bother nobody.”
One of the building’s four-legged residents, an 18-year-old mutt named Betty Boots, didn’t escape from the blaze. Her owner Manuel Lopez, 57, told The Post he ran back into his smoke-filled apartment in a desperate attempt to coax her out from under a bed, where she was hiding after being frightened by the fire alarm.
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Deputy Assistant Chief Sarrocco gave a press conference about the three-alarm fire at 2309 Holland Avenue in the Bronx, NY that gutted a sixth-floor apartment. Kevin C. Downs for NY Post
“I was trying to help her out, I really was. I couldn’t man, I couldn’t,” Lopez said through tears.
“I went back and tried to get her, but this time I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see nothing — it was black. The smoke was coming out from the floor, it was coming out from the closet, coming out of the cracks in the wall.”
Lopez said a NYPD firefighter came to his rescue just before he was overcome with the smoke, placing a mask on his face and dragging him into the hallway. Lopez pleaded with the fireman to save his dog, which he had since she was 2 years old, but the smoke had gotten too thick and the flames were spreading too fast.
After being treated for smoke inhalation at the hospital, the fireman showed up to deliver the heartbreaking news.
“He said ‘Mr. Lopez, you were from 6C? I’m sorry to tell you your dog didn’t make it.’
“Betty was my everything. She’s been with me forever. I was devastated. That’s my baby, man. She was my everything,” Lopez said.
Photos obtained by The Post from inside unit 6A showed the walls that were still left standing covered in black soot, and piles of debris and wooden planks littering the floor of the gutted apartment.
It took about 138 firefighters nearly one-and-a-half hours to get the blaze under control.
No FDNY personnel were injured.
Aikens said the fire ravaged her apartment where she had lived for the past 13 years, destroying nearly all of her possessions.
“All I have is what I have on my body,” she said, pointing to her red sweat suit. “This is it.”
Lillian Herring, 70, who lives in the apartment directly below the unit where the fire started, said she cannot return to her home because of the heavy water damage.
“I went back upstairs to see my apartment and water was falling from the ceiling… and it was ankle deep water,” she said. “The water was falling everywhere.”
Like Aikens, Herring said she ran out of her apartment in terror with only the clothes on her back when she heard the fire alarms blaring and people screaming for help.
“I feel OK, but I feel bad because I’ve been there for 10 years and now everything is damaged,” she said.
The American Red Cross was on the scene helping the displaced tenants.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
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