A blaze ripped through a high-rise apartment in The Bronx on Sunday, injuring seven🌺 people — i🌳ncluding two children, an elderly woman and a pair of firefighters, authorities said.
The fire started on the fifth floor of the buildi🍌ng at 450 E. 169th St. in Claremont at around 1:30 p.m., police said.
“It all happened so fast,” said Melinda Smith, who lives on the floor. “I left [home] to see my mother for 15 minutes, but when I got back, I saw that my building was on fire! I thought,ꦍ ‘Oh, my God, my cat is still inside!’ And then I thought of my neighbors.”
Smith, 37, said the elderly woman liveওs next door to her with three kids.
The 85-year-old woman and two of the children suffered minor injuries, as did the firefighters and two other residents🌞, according to Dep♏uty Chief Paul Mannix. They were treated at St. Barnabas Hospital.
“When I heard they all got hurt, I felt so sick,” Smith said. “They are such a nicꩲe, quiet family. I play with the ki🍌ds in the mornings. They are so sweet.”
Anoth♏er tenant said firefighters were trying to put out the blaze in the fireproof buil🔜ding while keeping people calm.
“Ther🌊e were fireman knocking on doors telling people to keep windows open to let the smoke out, but to stay in our apartments,” sa🐼id Suzette Harris, 43.
Some residents began to flee, but were ꧅told to get back inside, witnesses said.
One woman was rescu෴ed after frantically calling for help from her wi🐻ndow.
“She wa🅘s at the window, but she couldn’t get out because of the window guards,” said Battalion Chief Doug Scherman. “I was talking to her and telling her to stay calm, and eventually, we got to her.”
She was uninjured.
“In these fireproof buildings, we tell people to stay in their apartments,” Mannix noted. “There were a couple of people self-evacuating, and we got t﷽hem back into their apartments.”
The fire was put out at around 2:30 p.m., and the cause was under investigation, 🃏officials said.
A second Bronx blaze broke out on the fifth floor of 🃏a six-story building on Ryer Avenue in nꦅearby Fordham Heights at around 1:15 p.m., officials said.
The Fordham Heights fire was extinguished a short ti🍰me later without 🔜any injuries reported.