E-FIRE KILLS GIRL, 8
Qns. blaze blamed on scooter battery
A lithium battery from her sibling’s new electric scooter caused the blaze that killed an 8-year-old girl in Queens, fire officials and neighbors said Sunday as they recalled the frantic effort to save the child.
“The firefighter took the girl out first. He was carrying her in his arms,’’ said resident Daniel Calle, 27. “She looked like she was asleep.
“They were working diligently on her. They were pumping her chest . . . But she wasn’t moving.’’
Shaken resident Dora Dellis, 72, added, “There were about six or seven people around her.
“The [landlord’s wife] was crying.” She was saying, “I don’t care about the house. I don’t want the girl to die,” the witness said.
Fire officials said a scooter caused the blaze, and the landlord added that the electric device had been recently bought by the family for one of the girl’s teenage brothers.
“They just bought that stupid thing,” the landlord said. “I think they got it a month, a month and a half ago. Most of the time, the bike is here. [The girl’s dad] told me it was for his son, but he uses it, too.”
The fire broke out at the multifamily home at 130th Street in College Point shortly after 7:30 a.m. Saturday, officials said.
Another neighbor said the blaze appeared to have started at the front of the home, blocking the exit there and forcing those inside to try to escape from the rear.
Used fire escape
The family’s father and a brother scaled down the fire escape to the yard and ran to safety, said the witness, 18.
The firefighters “climbed onto the fire escape so they get to the little girl,’’ the young man said.
The dead girl, identified as Stephanie Villa Torres, suffered smoke inhalation and was pronounced dead at New York Presbyterian Hospital of Queens, authorities said.
Two others, believed to be Stephanie’s father and brother, were listed in stable condition at Jacobi Hospital Medical Center.
The landlord described Stephanie as a “quiet little girl. Very pretty, very sweet. In the beginning she was very shy,” he said of the victim when the family first moved in. “She was trying to hide.
“I mean, this is a kid,” said Debbie, another neighbor. “It’s just a shame.
“Those batteries, they gotta do something about those batteries because it’s too many lives they are losing,” she added.