By Rebecca White, Theodore Parisienne, John Annese
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — An elderly woman and her two adult children were killed by a fire that ripped through their Queens house early Sunday, officials said.
The blaze broke out in their home on 208th St. near 33rd Ave. in Bayside at about 2:40 a.m.
A resident on neighboring 34th Ave. called to report smoke in the area. When firefighters got out of their truck to check the block for the source of the smoke they found it coming from a cellar window of the victims’ home, FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said.
Firefighters found a 56-year-old man dead at the scene and two people mortally injured, officials said. One of the victims was found in the cellar while the other two were in a first-floor bedroom, Esposito said.
Medics rushed the dead man’s 54-year-old sister to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens and his 90-year-old mother to Flushing Hospital, but neither could be saved, cops said. Police have not yet released the victims’ names.
Neighbors said the matriarch of the family appeared to suffer dementia, while her adult daughter had Down syndrome.
“I always tried to help out because the mom used to wander,” said longtime neighbor Gina Vesely, 64, who lives in the house behind the victims’ home. “I said that God made me her guardian angel because every time I would go to walk my dog when she would wander I would find her. Every time. So I would bring her home.”
Vesely first realized something was wrong Sunday when her dog started barking strangely. When she looked out the window she saw fire trucks and black smoke pouring out of her neighbor’s kitchen window.
“I threw my coat on and my shoes,” she said. “I was here the whole time until they brought them out. I just kept praying that they would come out OK. … It was hard.”
Firefighters took out the 90-year-old woman first, she said.
“I know because she has her long gray hair, white hair,” Vesely said. “They [medics] were up on top of her.”
First responders brought out her daughter next, also trying to revive her, she said.
“It’s a very sad morning,” FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker said. “We certainly are thinking about the families that are affected by this. … We’re going to do everything at the FDNY to make sure that fire deaths stay low.”
FDNY officials said a dog also died in the blaze.
About 106 firefighters from 25 FDNY units battled the blaze until bringing it under control at about 4:10 a.m., officials said.
FDNY officials said the blaze appeared to have started in the basement and spread through the walls to the first and second floors. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
Vesely said the family’s neighbors often kept an eye out for the older woman.
“Me and some other neighbors just said, ‘Something bad’s gonna happen. You gotta watch. Keep a good eye on them,’” she said.
Vesely was opening her back door to let her dog out on Valentine’s Day when she last saw the elderly victim.
“She’s so cute. She sits at the kitchen window and she had flowers that she had put near the window,” Vesely said. “I saw her on the 14th with the flowers at the window.”
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