NY fire in ‘hoarding situation’ leaves 2 dead and dozens evacuated
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (PIX11) — Two people have lost their lives in a home that fire investigators described as a “hoarding situation,” in which firefighters had to climb over and through debris in heavy smoke to reach the two victims.
It was a dangerous situation which required all of the residents of the seven-story residential building to evacuate.
Behind the building at 30 Eastchester Road, there was a large pile of items on the lawn. The boxes, shoes, stuffed garbage bags, and other materials had all been tossed out of the third-floor apartment. A view into it showed that, even with enough items to fill eight mini-dumpsters, the apartment was still packed with stuff.
It had all caught fire at around 7:00 Friday morning.
“I was so scared,” said Cynthia Restropo, a resident of the building, describing her reaction to realizing that she’d woken up to part of her building having just caught fire. “I just changed, put my pants on, and I left,” she said.
Christopher Gilchrist said that the landings of the building filled with smoke, and it became immediately clear that the situation was life-threatening.
“Everybody started yelling and running around,” he said. “It got crazy, quick.”
Jeremiah Batista and his mother live directly above the apartment that was on fire.
“I opened the door, and there was just this wave of smoke, so I wake up my mom and was like, ‘We’ve got to get out of here.'”
They had just moved in four days ago.
“It’s been quite a week,” Batista said.
According to witnesses, a man and a woman had been taken out of the two-bedroom apartment by firefighters, who climbed over and through debris to reach them. The two residents perished.
A relative of one of the victims, who did not want to be identified, said that there’s a third housemate in the apartment who was spared from the crisis. He’s on vacation.
By early afternoon on Friday, residents of the building started to try to move back in after having to evacuate half a day earlier.
Their return, though, had feelings of guilt over the tragedy they’d all experienced, having lost two of their neighbors.
“It’s very sad,” said Sebastian Palancio as he moved his parakeets and other pets back into his family’s apartment Friday afternoon. “Honestly, I feel bad knowing they will not be part of our community anymore.”
The victims have not yet been identified. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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