Heat on NYPD in Queens fire death
The NYPD has launched a “major investigation” into the death of an elderly Queens woman forcibly removed by cops from her fireproof apartment and abandoned in a smoke-filled hallway, a police spokesman told The Post Friday.
The department’s probe came hours after The Post published a claim by the family of Ethel Davis, 91, that she was taken out of her apartment by officers and abandoned in a hallway while a fire was burning in the apartment below hers in Rockaway Beach on Jan. 12. She later died at the hospital.
“The police response to this fire is being currently reviewed and will continue to be reviewed until we have a clear understanding as to what our actions were at the scene,” Chief Timothy Trainor said.
“It calls for a major investigation,” he added. “We have a responsibility to investigate this, and we will. It’s not going to be a quick turnaround. We have to look at this incident in its entirety. There are many questions that have to be answered.”
“In the perfect world, Fire Department personnel would be the only responding units to go into fires because they are best equipped to handle and respond to fires,” Trainor said.
“We have officers that responded in good faith to the apartment fire where people were screaming in help, and the officers engaged in evacuating that building purely motivated by saving lives.”
Davis — who had five children, 15 grandchildren and 21 greatgrandchildren — had been lying in her apartment last Friday when of- ficers showed up and ordered her to leave, along with her daughter Marcia and a home health aide, as a fire was raging on the floor below them.
The daughter said she begged the cops to let them stay inside the fireproof residence, which is protected by a flame-resistant door designed to close on its own, but officers refused to let them.
She said that Sgt. Timothy Brovakos instead went inside and picked up Davis, carried her out into the hall, put her on the floor and then left. The nonagenarian died the next day of smoke inhalation, according to an FDNY source.
NYPD patrol guidelines say officers “should avoid entering any building that is on fire.”
“Uniformed members of the service should be aware that some modern buildings are fireproof and may not exhibit conditions that are commonly believed to be observable from outside a building on fire,” the NYPD’s patrol guide says.
“In most circumstances, members should await the arrival of FDNY personnel and assist in evacuation, pedestrian/traffic control and establishing a secure perimeter around firefighting operations,” it says. “[Due to] the fluid nature of the circumstances encountered at a fire scene, members of the service are reminded to use common-sense judgment.”
An FDNY official who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity agreed that Davis’ death appeared to be the result of a “training issue” on the part of cops.
“Obviously you have somebody that did not know what they were doing there,” the official said. “The question becomes, what training did they receive?”
A lawyer for Sgt. Brovakos told The Post Friday that the cop “risked his life” in an attempt to save the woman’s life.
[Officers] should avoid entering any building that is on fire. — NYPD guidelines