By Mark Hallum
A fire in Fresh Meadows Friday night took the life of one resident, while hospitalizing another, according to police.
Linda Landau, 78, was taken to Queens Hospital Center along with her 84-year-old husband Ronald Landau, who is in stable condition, police said. Linda Landau, however, succumbed to her injuries.
The fire broke out at about 9:30 p.m. at their home in at 69th Avenue on 180th St., with police from the 107th Precinct, FDNY and EMS responders on scene.
Landau was an amateur comedian who began doing stand-up at 60. A 2010 video posted to YouTube shows Landau performing on stage at the Broadway Comedy Club where she spoke lightheartedly about feminism, marriage and death.
“I love cemetery jokes,” she said, “because the only people you can offend are dead.”
Landau had celebrated her birthday about a week before the fire.
The fire marshal said the cause of the fire was a space heater’s faulty wiring.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
