Four people were killed and three seriously injured – including one man forced to leap through a window – in fires yesterday in Brooklyn and The Bronx.
Three of the fatalities occurred in the Brooklyn blaze, on 18th Avenue near Bay Ridge Parkway. It began shortly before 7 a.m. in the middle room of a second-floor apartment where there was no fire escape.
With their exit blocked, four unconscious men – ranging in age from 30 to 50 and all believed to be Guatemalan immigrants – were dragged out of the building by firefighters.
“It looked like they were in the process of trying to get out when they were overcome,” said Lt. Michael Doda of Ladder 168.
One victim was dead on arrival when the ambulance pulled up to Staten Island Hospital, and a second died in the emergency room, a hospital spokesman said. A third person died at the scene.
Another man was taken to Staten Island Hospital’s burn center, where he was in critical condition.
One of the survivors landed on his feet in a bloody heap on the sidewalk – after bounding over a five-foot awning underneath the window – surrounded by shattered glass.
He was in stable condition at Lutheran Medical Center.
About an hour later, a blaze broke out on the second floor of a six-story Bronx building on Morris Avenue between East 182nd and East 183rd Streets.
Firefighters found two women unconscious in the kitchen. Blondell Alston, 76, died shortly after at Jacobi Hospital.
Her mother, Dorothy Brown, 97, was in stable condition.