Brooklyn Apartment Fire Leaves 8 Hurt, Including 4 Kids
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Eight people were hurt in fast-moving fire in Brooklyn.
Six of the victims are family members. Four were in critical condition, including two children ages 4 and 8.
Dozens of firefighters were called to the 16-story Marlborough Houses apartment building on West 11th Street in Gravesend around 2 p.m. Saturday.
Officials say the blaze broke out in a three-bedroom apartment on the first floor. Crews were able to keep the flames from spreading to other units.
Glenda Reyes said her neighbor, Lucia Pereyra, was desperately banging on her door.
"She was screaming, 'My babies, my babies!'" she told CBS2's Erin Logan.
Reyes noticed Pereyra's apartment was filled with heavy, black smoke – her young children and other family members, including husband, Robert, still inside.
"She fainted," she said. "She had no clothes, nothing. We had to put clothes on her and shoes."
Firefighters were faced not only with heavy smoke, but window bars on the back of the home.
Kevin Rhodes said the scene was terrifying.
"The fire department came with axes and stuff and broke the back windows, broke out a girl. A baby girl and two little boys and an adult – a male adult," he said.
Though it was difficult, Reyes tried to remain calm for her neighbor's sake.
"She was panicking. She didn't want to leave. She wanted to get inside and get her babies out," she said. "They were trying to save one of them, because they wasn't breathing."
A neighbor living in a unit above told 1010 WINS' Darius Radzius she thought she was going to die.
"Everything's trapped off right here. There's really no way for us to get out," she said.
Another man said he was just worried about the kids.
"I just hope they alright. I heard the little babies though were something serious," he said.
"It was very scary, because it was little children involved. And the little children I know, because they go to school with my son and they're his friends," a woman added. "So I was a little bit hysterical for them."
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
