Four firefighters were among seven people seriously injured in a raging apartment fire in Washington Heights on Monday, officials said.
The Bravest appeared to have suffered smoke-related and exertion injuries from the 1:43 p.m. blaze on West 166th Street near Amsterdam Avenue, sources said. All of the injured are expected to survive.
“Some tenants heard an explosion. Then the whole building filled with smoke,” said Jahnney Torres, 36, who went to the scene later to help displaced relatives. “Everyone had to get out . . . The water made most of the ceilings come down. The mattresses are soaked. Almost everything is completely destroyed.”
The one-alarm fire broke out in a kitchen on the third floor, officials said. Sixty firefighters raced to the scene in three minutes and extinguished the flames an hour later.
The injured firefighters and three building residents were being treated at Weill Cornell Medical Center.
“Everything has been destroyed by the water,” said tenant Maria Balbuena, 60.
“We’re just trying to . . . pack things that are not waterlogged.”