On the eve of the anniversary of the hellish Black Sunday blaze that left two firefighters dead, a Bronx tenant yesterday recalled how he “made it worse” by throwing water on the electrical blaze.
“I went to the kitchen, got a bucket of water and threw it at the mattress, and the flames built up,” Rolando Escalera, 52, recalled of the morning of Jan. 23, 2005. “It made it worse.”
Escalera was testifying in a trial of two former tenants, the former manager and the one-time building owner who are accused of allowing the construction of a partition that blocked access to a fire escape.
They are charged with second-degree manslaughter.
Two firefighters, Curtis Meyran, 46, and John Bellew, 37, plunged to their deaths after being trapped in a room without a fire escape.