Two octogenarians suffered life-threatening injuries and one of them later died after more than 130 FDNY members battled a three-alarm blaze at an Upper East Side apartment building Wednesday, officials said.
A firefighter was also hurt in the fire, which broke out in a second-floor unit on East 82nd Street and Second Avenue around 8:30 a.m. and quickly intensified. It took about an hour and a half to douse the flames.
One of the two badly hurt civilians lived on the second floor, the other on the fourth floor. Both had to be rescued. However, an 83-year-old man was pronounced dead while an 81-year-old man was in critical condition. An extreme hoarding situation in the second-floor residence made it difficult for crews to find the person trapped inside, officials said.
Firefighters were later seen tossing that person's belongings out a window as they tried to clear debris. Scooters, nine bicycles and exercise equipment were all found inside that second-floor apartment.
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No other details on the civilian victims were immediately available. The hurt firefighter is expected to be OK and was also taken to a hospital.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
