A 15-year-old girl died in a “suspicious” fire that engulfed her Manhattan apartment building on Monday, officials said.
The four-alarm fire broke out in the six-story building on West 136th Street, near the City College campus, at around 5:45 p.m., authorities said.
Sadly, 15-year-old Melisa Mendez, who lived on the top floor with her family, didn’t make it out, police sources said.
She was found by firefighters badly burned on a staircase landing at the top floor, sources said.
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the fire was deemed suspicious because of the large volume of the blaze.
“It traveled up the stairs very quickly,” Nigro said. “So that’s why we deemed it suspicious.”
Nigro said the blaze started in a stairwell on the first floor and quickly spread throughout the entire building.
“Unfortunately, we did have a loss of life,” Nigro said outside. “They were found in the top floor and they were badly burned.”
A civilian and 10 firefighters suffered minor injuries in the blaze.
One hundred residents from 24 families were left homeless by the blaze, according to WABC-TV.
Additional reporting by David K. Li.