Investigators sift through NYC house fire wreckage

NEW YORK — Fire marshals sifted through charred wreckage and worked through the night to try to determine what sparked a fast-moving house fire that killed five people, including two boys and two teenage girls, but they don’t believe the blaze spread from a car found burned out in the driveway, officials said Monday.

The Sunday afternoon blaze rapidly engulfed the wooden single-family home in Queens Village, a middle-class neighborhood near Belmont Park, which hosts the Belmont Stakes, the final leg in horse racing’s Triple Crown.

A passing motorist called 911 to say someone had jumped from a window, and by the time firefighters arrived moments later, flames were chewing through the roof and roaring in upstairs windows. No working smoke detectors were found.

— became an international embarrassment for both the airlines and the city’s aviation department.

The report also includes the name of the officer, James Long, who authorities initially declined to identify.

blaze April 6 inside the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Strong winds over the weekend pushed the flames farther into areas of the swamp parched by drought, causing the fire’s footprint to grow by 76 percent between Friday and Monday.

So far, nearly all of the burning acreage has been confined to the Okefenokee refuge in southeast Georgia, as well as the neighboring Osceola National Forest and John M. Bethea State Forest in Florida.