‘HEARTBREAKING’: Firefighters wheel away a victim yesterday at the Bronx apartment building where a fast-moving fire killed Hazel Martinez. (Seth Gottfried)
‘HEARTBREAKING’: Firefighters wheel away a victim yesterday at the Bronx apartment building where a fast-moving fire killed Hazel Martinez (right). (
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An adorable 7-year-old girl was killed and her 3-year-old sister left fighting for her life after a suspicious blaze swept through their Bronx apartment building early yesterday, officials said.
The fast-moving fire erupted at 3:10 a.m. on the fourth floor of the five-story walk-up at 977 Grant Ave. in the Fleetwood-Concourse Village section, authorities said.
Arson investigators found a 5-gallon gasoline container at the scene and said a natural-gas line leading to the house had been “compromised,” law-enforcement sources told The Post.
NYPD detectives armed with search warrants scoured the building.
But sources cautioned that the gas container might have been left over from Hurricane Sandy. And the natural-gas line could have been altered only to save money, law-enforcement sources said.
Relatives were crushed by the loss of 7-year-old Hazel Martinez, who lived with her 3-year-old half-sister, Haley, and the rest of their family on the fourth floor.
“My son’s torn up over this. He’s in deep shock,” said German Martinez, the father of the girls’ dad.
Hazel was pronounced dead on arrival at Lincoln Hospital, while Haley was in critical condition at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
“Hazel was the smartest one in the family. I feel like my granddaughter is already in heaven,” German Martinez said.
“I had to come down here to see the devastation that happened to my family.
“I love them with all my life.”
The girls, born to different mothers, lived with their three brothers, ages 2 to 10, their father, Shaun Martinez, and their moms.
Firefighters said thick smoke on the building’s top floors made the fire particularly difficult to battle.
The Bravest administered CPR to the girls after pulling them from the building, witnesses said.
“It was heartbreaking. They lost a child so young,” said building resident Nicole Salem, 37, who was not injured. “The firefighters tried their best.”
Neighbor Anita Harris, who lives on the fifth floor directly over the girls’ apartment, said: “All you could see was smoke, everything was black. It was chaos getting out of the building.
“When I passed Apartment 4B [where the girls lived], I could see black smoke billowing, coming out from under the door, and silence inside the apartment.”
“Hazel was a beautiful little girl. I’m sorry she’s gone,’’ she said.
“I’m lucky I’m alive because my neighbors woke me up.”
Additional reporting by David K. Li, Kevin Sheehan and Kaylee Osowski