NEW YORK — Two people were killed and at least two firefighters were injured after a massive fire broke out in an apartment building in Brooklyn on Sunday.
The blaze in Bath Beach also displaced dozens of people.
CBS New York’s Derick Waller went to the corner of Bath Avenue and Bay 29th Street, where fire investigators were focusing their attention on a second-floor apartment. That’s where neighbors said they saw a man on fire and heard screaming.
The raging fire was caught on camera. Cellphone video shows intense flames engulfing an apartment as a woman screams for help outside.
The fire inside the four-story building broke out at around 6:45 p.m. Fire crews had it under control in just over an hour.
The FDNY confirmed that two people inside were pronounced dead at the scene.
“There was a guy on fire … people walking downstairs … the door was open, guy was on fire. They couldn’t help him,” witness Pasquale M. said.
The Red Cross is assisting dozens of neighbors forced out onto the street, including families with young children.
“I saw the smoke, heard the smoke alarm. I knew it was something big,” resident Othman Mars said. “I’m so grateful. We’re here in the cold, but we’re here.”
The owner of two cats had just moved in Sunday.
“Definitely surprising, but bad things can happen at random times, so today just happens to be an unlucky day for us,” Kervens Jasmine said.
However, according to one neighbor who didn’t want to be identified, what happened Sunday was far from the first time the FDNY has been called to that very same apartment.
“I’ve been living here for two years, so we’ve had like three or four incidents with them when they would get drunk, fall asleep and have something on the stove, which would be turned on and over time start burning and the fire department would come put it out,” the neighbor said.
This time, the situation turned deadly.
The injuries to the two firefighters were said to be minor.
Fire investigators are working on determining what caused the blaze.
