2 die in Bx. blaze; apt crammed with stuff
TWO MEN were killed and five people hospitalized after a fastmoving fire ripped through a Bronx hoarder’s condo early Saturday.
The blaze erupted around 1:10 a.m. in a 10th-floor apartment at the Parkchester North Condominiums on E. Tremont Ave. near Dogwood Drive.
“It sounded like a pipe exploded,” said Victor Ocasio, 24, who lives in the building. “I smelled smoke so I was looking around my house because I thought my house was on fire.”
Then he realized the fire was next door.
“I could hear screams through the bathroom (wall),” he said. “I started panicking.”
Firefighters told Ocasio to stay inside his home and to keep his door shut and windows open as they battled the blaze. After a few moments, Ocasio saw first responders rush 75-year-old John Quinones from the burning apartment on a stretcher.
“He was screaming in pain as he was being carried out,” Ocasio said.
Medics rushed Quinones to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died.
Hours after the fire, a man identifying himself as Quinones’ son went into the charred apartment to collect some belongings. He left with a small drawstring bag.
“He was a very humble guy,” the man said of his father. “I don’t know how the fire got started.”
Firefighters found a second victim dead in a hallway, police said. His name was not released.
An autopsy has been scheduled to determine how the second man died.
Emergency workers also rushed three residents to Jacobi Medical Center, one with critical injuries, an FDNY spokesman said. The other two victims from the building were in stable condition. Two firefighters were hospitalized with minor injuries.
Derri Thomas, a 53-year-old resident of the 11th floor, said he woke up at 1 a.m. to the smell of smoke.
“I couldn’t sleep because it was coming into my nose so strongly,” she said. “I looked through the peephole and saw firefighters in the hallway.”
Thomas said she saw someone being taken out on a stretcher an hour and a half after the fire broke out.
“They were trying to revive him,” she said.
It took about three hours to bring the fire under control. FDNY Fire Marshals were investigating the cause of the blaze.
An FDNY source described Quinones as a hoarder. All the clutter he collected over the years fueled the fire, the source said.
“He was known for not throwing out his pizza boxes and his corn flakes boxes,” first-floor resident Gabriel Almanzar, 42, said of Quinones. “He would sit out here with the other gentlemen. Nice guy, always said ‘hi’ in the elevator.”