A 3-year-old girl was among the four people killed as a raging fire tore through a Queens apartment building, officials said.
The toddler and two adults, a man and a 62-year-old woman, died at the scene where the four-alarm fire broke out about 12:30 p.m. Monday in the building on College Point Blvd. at Avery Ave. in Flushing, officials said.
A second man died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, officials said. One of the deceased men was 61, and the other was 57, but it wasn’t immediately clear which one died at the hospital.
Investigators are still trying to confirm the deceased victims’ identities, so their ages could change.
Seven other residents — three women and four men ranging in age from 33 to 67 — were treated for burns, smoke inhalation and other minor injuries.
At least three of the victims “jumped from upper floors,” FDNY Chief of Operations Kevin Woods said at the scene Monday. A fourth victim was trapped on the second floor and had to be rescued by firefighters.
“This is a difficult and tragic day,” FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said at the scene.
When firefighters arrived, the entire building was engulfed in flames. Two firefighters moving from the first floor to the second floor fell through a burning staircase and had to be rescued by other members, he said.
The owner of a nearby gas station heard what he described as an explosion and looked across the street to see people leaping from the building.“Something blew up. The whole roof was on fire. People were jumping from the building. Others were running across the street,” Wadud Mohammad, 59, told the Daily News.
“The Fire Department was here immediately. I saw them take three people out. They weren’t treating them. They were putting them right into the ambulance. I thought they were dead. I was terrified.”
Yibo Wang, 28, was returning home from the grocery store when she arrived to find the flames consuming her building.
“There were four people being carried out. One woman was unconscious and on the floor. One of the men being carried out, his head was covered in blood,” said Wang.
One woman was overheard shouting, “No, my baby, my baby! I want to see my baby!” as rescuers attempted to treat her.
At one point, the woman leaped off a gurney and fought her way past medics as she ran back toward the burning building, only for firefighters to drag her away as she screamed, “I want to see my baby!”
More than 230 firefighters and EMS members fought the fire and treated the wounded. Five firefighters, including the two that fell through the staircase, were hospitalized with minor injuries.
FDNY officials said there were five apartments on the second and third floors. As many as a dozen people were living in the third-floor apartment where the fire started, a neighbor told the Daily News.
“The apartment was vacant. Nobody was supposed to be living there. They were squatting,” said the neighbor, 30, who declined to share her name. “They were using one outlet and they had a ton of extension cords connected to it.”
The city Department of Buildings placed a full vacate order on the property late Monday, noting the fire left massive holes in the roof and the sheetrock.