Our battle in hell
FDNY chiefs relive Bronx horror
Here is what’s left of the hellscape that greeted New York’s Bravest at Thursday night’s deadly fire in The Bronx.
The entry hallway of 2363 Prospect Ave. is now a charred, dank shell — but on Thursday, as hoselugging firefighters from the borough’s 18th Battalion broke down the building’s front door, they entered a darkness made darker still by billowing black smoke.
Then they nearly stumbled. At their feet, three people were collapsed on the mosaic tile floor.
Two were adults. One was a child. All were motionless, not breathing.
“I’m dealing with three bodies, and I’m not even 10 feet into the building,” recalled Battalion Chief Jeffrey Facinelli.
The three were among the 12 dead and the four critically injured from the worst fire in New York City in more than 25 years.
“If you ever see a [child] come out of a fire with soot on them, it kind of changes the way you look at the fire,” added EMS Bronx Division Commander Michael Fields. “It kind of changes everything.”
Facinelli and Fields were the first officials to reach the scene; both were startled to see an early evening fire already so fully in flame.
“I would expect that kind of fire at 3, 4 in the morning, when people are sound asleep, not at dinnertime when everyone is awake, walking the streets, awake in your apartment,” Facinelli said.
“Why are we seeing this much fire?”
On that first floor, a toddler had been playing with the stove and started a kitchen fire that grew quickly to mammoth proportions, fueled by oxygen from the door his mother left open as she grabbed her kids and ran.
Only years of training could prepare the heroic Bravest for what greeted them inside that drafty, fire-swept hallway.
“There’s several people laying there, blocking the path for us to get in,” Facinelli recalled.
“So immediately we have a life
hazard that needs to be addressed before we can even get the hose in the building.”
The firefighters dropped the hose and carried out the victims, laying them on the sidewalk. Other arriving first responders began doing CPR as the first firefighters went back inside.
“Once our guys started going up, they started finding people all over the place,” Facinelli said grimly.
“In the public hallway upstairs, in apartments. It was heavily damaged, but our firefighters are well trained. They worked extremely hard under very difficult circumstances.
“Don’t forget, on the outside, things are icing up now.
“You’re dealing with zero visibility inside the building, highheat conditions, can’t-see-hand- in-front-of-the-face type of thing.
“I can’t speak enough for how well they operated. And for me, I’m just going by what I’m hearing on the radio.
“These guys are on their hands and knees, and they’re crawling around looking. I know because I’ve done it. I know how tough it is.”
Within minutes, Facinelli’s radio “started lighting up,” he recalled.
“We have another ‘45,’ Facinelli said, referring to the 10-45 code used to relay fire injuries.
“We have three more here. We have two here. The numbers just started escalating.”
In all, 22 families were left homeless, according to the Red Cross. Many of those survivors remained furious Saturday with the 25-year-old mother whose unsupervised child started the fire.
The woman’s name has not been released by authorities, who say she left both her young kids watching cartoons as she took a 20-minute shower.
“Her apartment is right behind mine,” said Shevon Stewart, 45.
“You don’t call for help? From the moment you see fire, call somebody. And if you don’t have a phone, knock on doors, do something.”
The mother had only faintly called out “Fire! Fire!” before sitting on a curb across the street, claimed Stewart, adding that she ran back in herself to alert neighbors.
Stewart’s brother-in-law, Holt Francis, is on life support at Jacobi Medical Center.
“He is hooked up to a machine. He can’t breathe on his own . . . All we can do is hope and pray,” said Francis’ cousin Hainsley Clarke.
Emelia Acheampong, 42, who also was left homeless, joined in raging at the young mother.
“I’m angry. I’m very angry. You got to be watching your kids. They got to know better. I mean, my roommate is dead,” said Acheampong, who was staying in a hotel room in Queens provided by the Red Cross.
Others were quick to avoid putting blame on the toddler’s mom.
“I’m not anyone to judge her,” said Rosa Arias, 43, a homehealth aide and mother of two.
Arias said she escaped only because she saw smoke coming under her third-floor apartment door.
“I didn’t hear an alarm. There wasn’t one,” she said. Still, she added, “I feel blessed.” “My children are OK.”