Several Hurt In Early Morning Bushwick Fire
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An early morning fire left seven people injured, two critically, in Bushwick Monday.
The blaze started at 269 Bleecker Street at 3:14 a.m. in the rear bedroom of what the fire chief on duty said was a vacant first-floor apartment.
A neighbor tells 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa the family had plans to rent the vacant apartment
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However, there were several people living upstairs.
Firefighters rescued Yolanda Nieves, 68, who was in respiratory arrest, and her 40-year-old son, Jerry Nieves, who was in cardiac arrest. Firefighters administered CPR at the scene to both victims who were later transported to the hospital. Four other people, including two teenage boys who were rescued by firefighters from a second floor window, suffered minor injuries.
One firefighter sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene, officials said.
"The fire started in the rear in the first floor and extended to the second floor of a wood frame building in Bushwick," said FDNY Chief Eddie Travers. "The fire started in the bedroom, a vacant bedroom on the first floor."
CBS 2's Jay Dow spoke to a relative of one of the victims, and a neighbor who described what he saw when the fire was at its worst.
"Somebody called me and said that my sister's house was on fire. I don't know what happened. I don't know. Somebody said my sister went to the hospital," a relative said.
"When they were breaking in my door that I was inside, I thought it was something else. I thought it was a fight or something. Instead it was the Fire Department that busted down my kitchen door. Black, black, pitch black, very smokey, anybody could've suffocated from it. It was smoke so black, it was like wood they were burning," said neighbor Ramon Rodriguez.
A faulty electrical cord appears to have caused the fire, officials said.
