Red Cross Assists Families Displaced By Bronx Fire
NEW YORK (CBS 2/1010 WINS) --The Red Cross is coming to the aid of families displaced in a Bronx apartment building fire Saturday night that left one dead and seven others hurt.
Fresh meals are being hand delivered to P.S. 64 in Mount Eden. The school has become a Red Cross emergency center for about 50 of the more than 120 people who were forced out of their homes following the fire, CBS 2's Derrick Dennis reported.
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"You're out of your home, you don't know the state of your belongings. You know it's cold out and the holiday season, etc. It's a hard time," Katie Hill of the Red Cross said.
The blaze broke out just before 10 p.m. Saturday in the lobby of a five-story apartment building at 169th Street and the Grand Concourse in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx.
The flames and smoke then quickly spread to the top floor as more than 60 firefighters responded.
Clotilde Vives was in her pajamas when she and her family had to leave the burning building. The Red Cross has stepped in to help by providing new clothing.
"I had to get clothes and shoes. My kids had to get clothes and shoes too," she told reporters including CBS 2's Derrick Dennis.
Kwame McMillan was home in his first floor apartment with his grandmother when the fire broke out and said the only sound he heard was glass breaking.
"I just came, opened my door and there was fire all in my hallway -- from the top of the ceiling to the walls to the floor," McMillan said.
Several people were hurt trying to get out, one jumped from a window, an elderly woman fell from a fire escape.
The 46-year-old man who died in the blaze was found collapsed in a stairwell of the building.
"It went to a second alarm pretty quickly. Fire Department was on the scene, taking care of what they usually do here in the City. Some did have to go to the hospital," said John Cruz of the Red Cross.
