City issues vacate order for illegal Manhattan apartment after fire kills 7-year-old boy

FDNY responds to a fatal apartment fire in Washington Heights early Saturday morning.
FDNY responds to a fatal apartment fire in Washington Heights early Saturday morning. Photo credit The Citizen App

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The city has issued a vacate order for a basement apartment where a fire killed a 7-year-old boy Saturday morning, officials said.

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The FDNY has deemed the fire as accidental, stemming from electrical wiring involving a power strip — but a Department of Buildings review found the apartment itself was illegally occupied.

The fire sparked around 1:30 a.m. Saturday in the superintendent’s basement apartment at 660 West 178 Street in Washington Heights, killing the super’s grandson, Robert Resto, and seriously injuring another woman, according to police.

Two storage rooms in the apartment were illegally converted into sleeping quarters and each were damaged by the blaze, according to the DOB.

The agency issued Partial Vacate Order for the fire-damaged sections of the basement and said an investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Featured Image Photo Credit: The Citizen App