SoHo fire leaves father, 95, dead and son, 71, critically hurt; Firefighter seriously injured
NEW YORK -- A deadly fire in SoHo killed an elderly man and left his son with critical injuries.
Firefighters say clutter inside the apartment made the firefighting effort that much more difficult.
"It's just very hard," Elizabeth Marino said.
Marino started crying when she realized she knew the father killed in the apartment, and the son, who is still fighting for his life. She used to live in the building and was back to help her nephew move from his smoke-damaged floor.
"They were a nice family. They were an Italian family, and we were very close growing up, and I'm still friendly with the daughter," Marino said.
Firefighters flew a drone above the 6-story building trying to determine why flames erupted from the 4th floor unit where the 71-year-old man and his 95-year-old father were living. Both victims were found unresponsive.
"I wasn't here when they were pulled out. By the time I got here, he was just on the ground and they were doing CPR, and then they wheeled him past in the gurney," neighbor Andrea Roble said.
"Very, very tight hallways. The apartment was full of clutter, which kind of delayed our accessing the apartment," Deputy Fire Chief Michael Barvels said. "Once we did get into the apartment, we put water on the fire."
The fire broke out just after 9 p.m. on the fourth floor of a six story apartment building on Sullivan Street.
"I grabbed a couple things, and I opened my door, and the hallway was filled with smoke. The firefighters were rushing in," neighbor Shelby Halas said.
"It's horrifying," Halas added. "There [were] people who didn't know and they had to get carried out."
Neighbors said the unit had a history of problems, and they contacted Adult Protective Services multiple times over odor complaints.
"Cleanliness of the apartment, clutter, maybe stuff that was emanating from the apartment. But since I lived below, I never experienced it firsthand, but a lot of the people that lived on the upper floors had issues," neighbor Cary Williams said.
Firefighters say the clutter made the apartment difficult to access and delayed their firefighting efforts.
Families say despite the heavy smoke – no alarms went off.
"I just knock on every door. I knock on their door, too, but too much smoke is coming outside so I ran myself too. I couldn't do nothing," superintendent Abi Dreshaj said.
One firefighter suffered serious injuries.
Officials say the cause does not appear to be suspicious.
