Thirteen people were injured in a fire that broke out in a six story Brooklyn apartment building in March 2014. According to FDNY officials, two firefighters were among the injured, and four people were taken to the hospital as a result of their injuries. A 54-year-old man was listed in serious condition at Lutheran Hospital, where he was taken after plunging several stories from his fifth floor apartment and landing on scaffolding.
The fire broke out at 6:30 a.m. in the fourth floor apartment of tenant Idalia Quinones. Quinones, who was able to escape the building with her husband and three sons, stated, “I opened the door to the room and all I see is smoke. So I panicked and I woke my boys up.” Firefighters were able to control the blaze after being on the scene for 30 minutes.
Jordan Alston, a neighbor, witnessed the 54-year-old man fall onto the scaffolding. He said, “He tried to grab the tree branch, it wasn’t strong enough and it was wet. So he just fell on the scaffold.”
A video posted on Instagram showed the man dangling from his fifth story apartment window by a bedsheet. As firefighters attempted to rescue him with a ladder, he suddenly dropped. According to Quinones, the man almost made it out of the apartment, but he turned back to get his wife. The couple was trapped by thick black smoke. Firefighters were able to rescues the man’s wife.
The cause of the blaze, which occurred in the Red Hook Houses of Brooklyn, is still under investigation.
Website Resource: Man Plunges Several Stories, 13 Injured In Brooklyn Fire, CBS News, March 30, 2014
Man Plunges Several Stories Amid Brooklyn Fire; 13 Injured, NBC News, March 31, 2014
