Five people, including four children, are recovering after an overnight apartment fire in along Audobon Avenue in Washington Heights. A mother is now being questioned in the investigation after police said the children hurt and burned had been left alone in the apartment. NBC New York’s Gaby Acevedo reports.
Four children were hurt, two of them critically, in a fast-moving fire that swept through a Washington Heights apartment building overnight, authorities say.
Officials said Thursday that the FDNY was called to the building on Audubon Avenue, near West 175th Street, around 11 p.m. the prior evening for a report of a fire.
It's not clear where it broke out or what started it, but children accounted for most of the victims.
Video posted to the Citizen app showed flames leaping from a fifth-floor apartment. It was under control within about an hour, fire officials said.
Jayren Zorilla, a 14-year-old, was the first one to reach his neighbor's apartment after a young girl knocked on his door.
"She was like crying, she was desperate. She was like, 'My little brothers are inside,'" he said. "The little girl had her face a little bit burned and her feet."
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Zorilla and his mother were able to get the girl out, but heavy smoke prevented them from reaching the younger siblings.
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"I feel a little bit proud because we got to help at least the little girl, but sad we couldn’t help the two little babies," said Zorilla.
According to police, a 2-year-old boy and a 1-year-old boy were hospitalized in critical condition, while two 8-year-old girls, along with a 28-year-old woman, were taken to a hospital but are expected to recover.
The woman is the mother of the 8-year-old girl; they live together in one apartment and were treated for smoke inhalation. The other victims, the two youngest and the 8-year-old, are siblings. Investigators say they were home alone at the time of the blaze — and their mother is being questioned by police.
The investigation is ongoing.
