NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A 5-year-old boy was killed in a house fire in the Bronx on Wednesday evening—the second child in the city to die this week after becoming trapped in a fire.
FDNY firefighters responded to the fire on Barnes Avenue, near East 226th Street, in the Wakefield section around 5:30 p.m. and found the boy on a bed in the basement.
He was rushed to NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi, where he was pronounced dead. He has not been identified.
Three of the boy's family members—including a toddler, their 26-year-old mother and their 83-year-old great grandmother—suffered smoke inhalation and were hospitalized in serious but stable condition at Jacobi.
The fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire, which officials believe started in the basement of the home and then spread to the upper floors.
"Units arrived in roughly three minutes, encountered fire in the basement," said FDNY Deputy Chief Kenneth Scanlon. "It was a hard stretch, there was tight quarters."
Neighbors stood outside and watched in horror as smoke and flames engulfed the home.
"There was a whole bunch of smoke billowing out of the windows, and I see them running, you know, trying to bring the babies out," said Michelle Durrett, who lives three doors down.
The boy's death came just two days after a 6-year-old girl, Rory DeCristoforo, was killed after she became trapped in a second-floor bedroom as her family's home burned in West Brighton, Staten Island, on Monday evening.