Smoking may have caused fire that killed pair

NEW YORK — An elderly Manhattan couple died in a blaze that engulfed their luxury high-rise apartment before dawn Saturday and sent flames roaring out the windows.

were looking into the possibility that cigarette smoking in bed may have caused the fire at the famed River House co-op on East 52nd Street.

Fire officials said 85year-old Mary Merow was pronounced dead at the scene. Her 89-year-old husband, John Merow, was rushed to Weill Cornell Medical Center but died of his injuries.