A 36-year-old man with a self-described love of learning and self-improvement died in a weekend blaze in his Hells Kitchen apartment, his devastated family told the Daily News.
Danny Parache died after firefighters removed him from his fifth-floor apartment on W. 49th St. near Eighth Ave. around 11:15 a.m. Saturday.
Medics took him and a second man, who Parache’s family says lived in the apartment with him, to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, where Parache died.
Parache’s mother raced to the hospital, the victim’s aunt, Odalis Parache, 55, told The News.
“She’s devastated. She was saying that she didn’t want to leave him in that cold room,” the aunt recounted Sunday. “She was devastated because she saw everything, when they put him in that black bag.”
Danny Parache, 36, died after a fire in his his fifth-floor apartment on West 49th St. in Manhattan on Saturday. (Facebook)
Parache, the middle child of three siblings, grew up in his family’s home in Cypress Hills, then moved to another spot in Brooklyn with his mom when he was in high school. He had only relocated to Manhattan recently, his aunt said.
She said his roommate, who was burned badly, remains in critical condition. A third man who suffered a minor injury went to the same hospital.
About 80 firefighters responded to the blaze, which took about 45 minutes to get under control, FDNY officials said. The cause remains under investigation, though Parache’s aunt said Sunday that the victim’s roommate before losing consciousness told investigators he suspected an overloaded electrical outlet sparked the blaze.
Firefighters also rescued a dog from the blaze, she said.
Danny Parache, 36. (Facebook)
Parache described his life’s philosophy in a statement on his LinkedIn profile.
“I have an unwavering resolve to become greater than the person I was yesterday. I strive to become the best, so that I may help and teach those around me,” he wrote. “It’s like when you’re receiving the safety instructions for an aircraft. ‘Secure your oxygen mask first before helping those around you.’ If you don’t strive to become better, you’ll never be able to help those around you.”
Parache said that quest for betterment led him into the field of technology. According to his profile, he worked as an operations manager for Verizon.
“It is a field that is always evolving, you must stay on your toes and with the times in order to continually succeed,” he wrote. “I love learning new skills and finding ways to implement them into my current projects.”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Firefighters respond to a fire on the fifth floor of an apartment building on W. 49th St. near Eighth Ave. in Hells Kitchen on Saturday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
He was a voracious reader growing up, his aunt said.
“He used to go to the restroom and he stayed there for hours,” she recalled fondly. “His mother used to say, ‘Come out of that bathroom because youve been sitting there for too long reading’. So, yeah, he’s always reading.”
Parache described himself on LinkedIn as a “people person,” writing about how he very rarely comes across someone he can’t learn something new from.
His aunt agrees.
“He’s a very outgoing person, very sweet. Loved everybody, never disrespect anybody. Hardworking man,” she said. “The most nicest person I ever met in my life.”