Children across the city are taught at an early age, when leaving an apartment during a fire, close the door. The lesson was lost on a resident of an apartment building in Jamaica Tuesday afternoon and as a result, four neighbors were hospitalized.
The fire broke out on the third floor of a residential building at 148-25 88th Avenue at 1:19 p.m. and the FDNY dispatched 12 units with 60 firefighter and EMS personnel to the scene.
Firefighters discovered a number of trapped residents in the stairwell and third floor of the six-story building, according to the FDNY. One of the residents left an apartment door open while attempting to escape the flames. This allowed smoke to travel up through the fourth through sixth floors.
Ladder Company 127 was first on the scene and found heavy fire blowing out the rear windows and into the public hallway. Some residents were able to get out using fire escapes while ten of the neighbors needed the assistance of firefighters to get down to street level.
Four civilians were injured and were transported by EMS to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center with various conditions. No firefighters were injured and the blaze was reported under control at 2:16 p.m.
FDNY fire marshals are working to determine the cause of the blaze.
