DEATHTRAP
Ma, dad can’t escape raging B’klyn blaze
A BROOKLYN family was torn apart early Monday when fire killed a couple and left their panic-stricken teenage daughter screaming for help from a window.
“My parents are in the back, please help!” the 17-year-old girl yelled into the predawn darkness, according to a neighbor. “My parents are trapped.”
Howard and Evelyn Gluck were rushed to Maimonides Medical Center, where they died, after being discovered unconscious in the rear of the home.
The blaze erupted in the first floor of a two-story, woodframed house on 44th St. near 12th Ave. in Borough Park just before 4 a.m. and sent smoke pouring out of the attic. Howard Gluck, 61, who was also known as Chaim, worked at Delta Hardware in Coney Island, according to a community source. Evelyn Gluck, 59, who was also known as Faigy, recently had knee surgery. In addition to their teen daughter, the couple had three other children. Two live in Lakewood, N.J., and the third is in Fairlawn, N.J.
“My baby woke up and I pulled the window shades. The world was black,” said a neighbor who identified herself only as Chava. “I’m telling you, I was terrified. The trauma was more the stillness of the night and the roaring flames.”
Another witness saw a body being brought out by emergency workers.
“There was just heavy smoke and fire everywhere. First they brought (the body) out and took it the side and did CPR. Then they rushed them to the ambulance. The person was all burned up.”
The daughter suffered smoke inhalation and was taken to the hospital. She was released to attend her parents’ funeral Monday afternoon in Brooklyn.
Son Yeidel Gluck told the hundreds of mourners who gathered to say their goodbyes that his parents were genuine people.
“They were just so special,” he said through tears at Shomrei Hadas Chapel in Borough Park.
Rabbi Eli Greenblatt, who knew the family for years, said Chaim Gluck was a “very righteous man.”
He was the first one at morning services each day and opened the door for other worshipers, the rabbi added.
A firefighter was also taken to Maimonides with bumps, bruises and possible burns, fire officials said.
Firefighters extinguished the flames around 6 a.m.
The blaze ripped the house apart, chewing through the first and second floors and leaving the family’s possessions, collected over decades, strewn across the lawn.
Neighbor Lyudmala Pinsker, 75, said the couple moved into the neighborhood 38 years ago.
“Nice family, very polite. She is good friend for everybody,” Pinsker said. “They’re both very nice and their family is very nice. I feel very bad. I don’t believe this happened to her.”