"A pillar of the community:" Woman and 17-year-old girl dead, 3 children hospitalized after suspicious fire in East New York, Brooklyn
NEW YORK -- Investigators believe someone may have started a deadly fire in East New York which took the lives of two people Tuesday - a woman and a teenage girl.
Officials said five others are in the hospital, including three children with critical injuries.
The fire has been deemed suspicious. Details on that are still very scarce.
Neighbors on Fountain Avenue awoke Tuesday morning to sirens, and screams.
"I just saw a bunch of flashlights, and firefighters breaking out the glass," neighbor Vanessa Dudley Tucker said. "I just heard screaming."
Officials said a woman was found dead at the scene. A teenage girl was pronounced dead at the hospital. Four others - an adult man and children aged 9-14 - are injured. Those kids are fighting for their lives.
"I see the fire was all over the second floor," neighbor Rakib Hasan said. "Somebody opened the front door, and I see fire also in the staircase."
Officials say a firefighter also had minor injuries.
As the grisly investigation unfolds, investigators believe someone used a fire accelerant to spark the flames - a disturbing turn of events for those who live there.
"I'm in tears. Last night, when I went back in, after they told everybody to get back, that's the end of that," one person said.
"That's like my family, I love them to death, and this just blew my mind," said neighbor Michael McMahon.
First responders had to keep McMahon back as he tried to save the children.
"They're a fixture here," he said.
FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Chuck Downey said crews arrived in two minutes, but encountered a challenge right away.
"We had a car on a hydrant right here," Downey said.
That's something FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh addressed at an afternoon news conference.
"We are certainly seeing more and more issues of cars parked in front of hydrants, and remind people that that has real safety implications," Kavanagh said.
Neighbors struggled to process the tragic developments. They said the family is related to the owners of the deli on the corner, and is well known in the community. Lashanna Bray was at the deli late Monday night.
"I was the last one in the store with him," Bray said. "We were talking about life and family and I said get home safe."
That deli remained closed Tuesday, something neighbors say is a rare sight.
"It's very unusual for this store not to be open unless it's a Muslim holiday. The store is open all the time," Tucker said.
"They're a pillar of the community," said Bray.
Officials believe the fire may have been intentionally set, but so far there have been no updates on who would have done something like that, or why.
"Nobody never harmed them. Nobody ever said, 'blah, blah, blah,' anything," Bray said. "They go in there, he cracks jokes."
The FDNY also said it has been providing fire safety outreach in the neighborhood.
