BOOM! Then cries
Survivor tells of deadly blaze
A Queens man who barely escaped a suspicious house fire that killed three other tenants has been haunted each day since by their terrified cries for help, he told The Post.
“My head still plays them screaming for help and me looking at them,” according to the shaken survivor, who recounted for the first time that horrible Dec. 19 night in Elmhurst.
Moments before the inferno erupted, the man recalled being jolted awake by a worrisome noise — the sound of a gas burner before it ignites.
Next was a crashing boom, and then complete darkness.
The tenant, who had lived in a room in the 48th Avenue house for two years and asked that his name be withheld, smelled smoke and saw flames shooting from the top of the basement door.
“I put on my boots. I put on my coat as calmly as I could,” he said.
He desperately tried to alert others by banging on doors and yelling, “Fire! Fire!”
He called 911 as soon as he was safe.
“I barely made it out of there alive,” he said.
But three others were trapped, two in their rooms as doors to a second floor balcony were locked, blocking a route to safety.
All three were found dead. Authorities have not publicly identified the victims.
The FDNY has yet to determine the cause of the fire. But the blaze was deemed suspicious and is being investigated as a possible arson after traces of accelerant were found at the property, officials said.
The first-floor tenant, who had been paying about $700 a month rent, said he and about half a dozen others living in the Elmhurst home had struggled with new landlords in recent months, claiming they wanted them out of the building — even at one point turning off the utilities.
The tenant had met landlord Eric Chen a couple of times and said in September or October, the landlord asked him how much money he wanted to be paid to move out.
The resident said he didn’t have time to discuss the matter.
After the fire, police and fire marshals asked him what he knew about Chen and what communications he had with him, the tenant said, adding he reported the landlord’s effort to get him out to police.
Authorities showed him a video of someone entering the home’s yard before dawn on Dec. 19 and then walking away 15 to 20 minutes later. He said the man was wearing a black coat. He told police that he could not identity the person in the footage.
Police sources told The Post that traces of accelerant were also found on gloves inside Chen’s car. They seized the SUV as well as computer equipment. The investigation is ongoing, but police have not charged Chen, who could not be reached for comment, with a crime.
A neighbor told The Post the building owner wanted to sell the property and was allegedly frustrated by occupants who wouldn’t budge. The property went into foreclosure last fall and was purchased by an LLC for $1.2 million in February. Chen, 29, of Flushing, is listed in state records as the registered agent.
Gustavo Escubero, who used to be the super in the building before he left earlier this year, claimed in January several people would repeatedly come to the house or call tenants in an attempt to get them to move.
Initial state documents for the LLC, filed on Jan. 2, list Nancy Xie as the organizer of the corporation. The name of the registered agent was changed to Chen in April. Xie could not be reached for comment.