2 dead, 7 hurt – arson suspected in B’klyn
A FAST-MOVING suspected arson killed at least two people and injured seven others in Brooklyn on Thursday, authorities said.
The blaze erupted around 7 a.m. in a three-story brick building on 11th Ave. near 67th St. in Dyker Heights.
A 58-year-old man and 56-year-old woman, both badly burned, were found dead inside the building, in which five apartments are above a nail salon. The victims’ names were not immediately disclosed.
Dogs from the FDNY’s K-9 Unit sniffed possible accelerants in several locations, including on the third floor where the bodies were found — leading fire marshals to suspect arson. The cause of the fire has not been officially determined.
Police took a 22-year-old woman into custody for questioning. Cops are investigating whether the woman, who lives in the building, started the fire as an outlet to deal with her mental health issues, sources said. Charges against her are pending. Residents heard “fighting and yelling coming from the back of the building” right before the fire started, second-floor tenant Karen Hernandez said.
“(My sister) noticed that the door handle was hot,” the 20-year-old Hernandez said. “My mother checked and told us there was smoke coming from the back of the building. We went down the fire escape.
“It was scary,” she added. “There was heavy black smoke.”
Carmen Loo, 13, who lives on the first floor with her parents and two sisters, said one sibling woke her up, yelling “Smoke!”
“I was sleeping. I didn’t really see any fire, but there was a lot of smoke coming in,” she said. “The door was too hot to open, so we opened the back window and just jumped out. Everybody’s door was really hot.”
The blaze looked suspicious from the beginning because of the high volume of fire found when firefighters arrived, sources said.
FDNY Chief of Department James Leonard said the fire spread fast, jumping to a second alarm within 10 minutes and requiring more firefighters to respond. It was brought under control at 8:16 a.m., he said.
“There were very, very heavy fire conditions in the hallway going through into the top floor and fire out the top floor windows,” he said. Heidi Pugni, 53, who lives behind the building, rushed out of her home with her mother. “You could see the flames just shooting out of the top apartment,” she said. “From what I understand, people in the front jumped.” The family from the burning apartment escaped to their car, Pugni said.
“Some were in their pajamas, some (had) bare feet,” she said. “We just gave whatever we could get them to keep them warm.”
Cell phone video Pugni recorded showed a ball of raging flames pouring thick black smoke into the Brooklyn sky.
“The flames were shooting out of the top floor from what I could see,” she said. “You could also see flames coming out of the second floor on the back side.”
“One of the families had an infant, there were two little girls,” she added. “My jaw just dropped. I felt so bad for them.”
Medics rushed four members of a family — a 31-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman, a 4-year-old boy and a 3-month-old boy — to Maimonides Medical Center, where they were treated for smoke inhalation and bumps and bruises. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries Leonard said.
The building had no smoke detectors, officials said.