Fatal blaze
Cancer patient, 66, dies in her B’klyn apt.
SHE BATTLED cancer. She lived by herself. And, tragically, that’s also how she died — alone.
A 66-year-old woman died Saturday night after a fire engulfed her third-floor apartment in Brooklyn. The cause of the blaze was still under investigation late Sunday, though neighbors heard fire officials discussing whether the flames erupted in her bedroom.
Firefighters responded to the sixth-story building on 94th St. near Shore Road in Bay Ridge. It was about 11:30 p.m. Edwina Faith Golas, who neighbors said lived alone, was found dead in her apartment.
A badly charred foam mattress lay on the sidewalk in front of the building directly below four windows knocked out by firefighters to ventilate the apartment.
Neighbors said Golas once worked at British Airways as a flight attendant.
“She was a nice person,” said neighbor Dewey Cole, a lawyer who lived next door to Golas for 20 years. “A couple of times she brought my luggage from the airport when it was on the wrong flight.”
Cole said a home health aide came to visit Golas every day due to her declining health. She recently told neighbors she had cancer, Cole said.
Golas doted on her cat. And among her belongings found outside the building was a scrapbook that revealed she was named Miss Gal Friday in 1973.
In more recent times, neighbors helped her with everyday tasks like moving her Jeep Liberty for alternate-side parking.
June VonGizycki, 56, lives in the building. She recalled smoke billowing into the hallway.
“I knew it was bad,” she said. “(Golas) was a cat lover. She was quiet, a good neighbor, mostly kept to herself.”
Firefighters rescued the victim’s beloved cat and used a child’s oxygen mask to revive it, said neighbor Mallory McMahon.
“When they brought the cat out, he was limp,” McMahon said. “I thought he was dead.”
McMahon, who lives on the sixth floor, said she grabbed her dog and ran downstairs. Many other residents did the same.
“Everyone’s carrying pets and babies, coming down the stairs just to get out,” she said. “As we came out, the firemen were coming in with the hoses . ... We watched them take the windows out with the axes.”
No other residents were hurt in the fire, which was contained to the victim’s apartment. Firefighters had the blaze under control around midnight.
One firefighter was taken to NYU Lutheran Medical Center with minor injuries.
Laura DiPaola, 36, who lives on the first floor, rushed Golas’ precious cat to the vet.
“I raced it to the hospital in my arms,” DiPaola said. “If it needs a home, it might end up being ours.”
The fire marshal’s office will determine the cause of the blaze. The medical examiner’s office will determine how Golas died.