DEATH GRIP
Granny falls back into flames after heroic rescue effort fails
A RAGING electrical fire killed an elderly couple Saturday in a burning Brooklyn house of horrors where a pair of good Samaritans pulled a trapped mom off the roof.
The gutsy duo, using a ladder propped against the two-story home, tried but failed to rescue 71-year-old Octavia Kinard despite two attempts to yank her through a window to safety.
The pair instead watched helplessly as the terrified woman disappeared into the smoke and flames ravaging the East Flatbush home.
“I’m probably the last one the woman saw,” said shaken nextdoor neighbor Freddy Semple. “We didn’t bargain for this.”
Kinard’s body, along with the body of her husband Lord Kinard, 76, were found on the second floor, officials said. The FDNY said there were no smoke detectors inside the home.
The house was already engulfed in flames when Semple — in his bare feet — ran over with a ladder at 5:35 a.m.
He was joined by Fabian Clarke, 47, who was headed to work when he heard an explosion and screams in the darkness. Clarke was the first one up the ladder.
The elderly woman “was too big to get out,” said Clarke. “Her head and shoulders were out the window. But she fell back inside the house. It’s terrible, it’s sad.”
Semple made a second fruitless attempt to pull the dazed woman to safety, spotting her inside and trying again to get her out the window.
“She was in a state of she doesn’t know what’s going on,” said the 34-year-old Semple. “She looked like she was really scared.”
The two men were able to pluck another hysterical woman off the roof as smoke billowed down the block and flames shot into the street.
Eyewitnesses gaped in horror as a young man caught in the blaze jumped for his life from a second-floor window, with burning flesh falling from his hands and legs as he ran screaming from the flames.
“People were scared and in shock, especially when that dude came out,” said witness Leon Bernard. “His skin was falling off his arms. It was really horrifying to see.”
The burn victim was identified by a close family friend as O’Justin Kinard, 19. He was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, along with a 40-year-old man who was believed to have injured his leg while clearing a branch that was in the way of the good Samaritans’ ladder.
“Everybody’s in shock,” said friend Tanya Atkins, 30. “At first, everyone was in denial but now everyone is in a lot of grief.”
Clarke and Semple, after hearing the screams coming from the E. 49th St. house, spotted the woman on the roof as the flames raged below.
“Get my kids! Get my kids!” she screamed. “Help! Help! Help!”
After his failed effort at rescuing the older woman, Clarke (photo, right) continued up the ladder to the roof and helped the screaming younger woman down to the ground.
Neighbors said four people lived in the house — Lord and Octavia Kinard, their daughter and their grandson.
The FDNY determined the cause of the blaze was accidental — triggered by a power strip in the first floor dining room. “The fire just started shooting out the big front window — boom!” said neighbor Rick Nelson, 34. “Shooting all the way out to the street. It had the whole sky red. You couldn’t even see through the line of smoke. “It was like a fog machine.” Firefighters needed 40 minutes to bring the fast-moving fire under control. A firefighter was also taken to Kings County Hospital with minor injuries, officials said.