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1 dead, 4 seriously hurt in fire in NY Chinatown

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-25 09:32

NEW YORK -- A fire ripped through a six-story apartment building in New York's Chinatown neighborhood early Tuesday, killing a 32-year-old man and injuring 28 other people before it was brought under control.

Four residents were seriously injured, including some who jumped from windows on the fifth and sixth floors, officials said. Eight firefighters suffered minor injuries.

Firefighters pour water on the roof an apartment building in the Chinatown section of New York, February 24, 2009, in New York. [Agencies]

"People were yelling and screaming from the fire escape. They were crying for help," Mary Liu, 29, told the New York Daily News. "One lady jumped out of the building. It was chaos."

The Red Cross said 60 families - estimated at more than 200 people - from the building and two others nearby were taken to a shelter. The agency was trying to find Mandarin interpreters.

The fire, which started on the second floor, was difficult to control because the building was so old, like so many in the historic lower Manhattan neighborhood, Fire Department Chief of Operations Patrick McNally said. In temperatures that dropped to 22 degrees overnight, water from fire hoses froze when it hit the ground, he said.

At times, fire could be seen shooting out of the windows and smoke was billowing near the roof. By midmorning, fire officials said the blaze was under control.

A 32-year-old man was dead on arrival at New York Downtown Hospital, and a critically injured adult taken there was then moved to the burn unit at Weill Cornell Medical Center, spokeswoman Kathleen O'Keefe said. Details on the other injured were not immediately available.

Jacquelyn Gallo told the Daily News she was asleep when she heard the alarm. She said she tried to open her windows but they were locked, so she ran into the hallway.

"The smoke was thick. I couldn't see anything. I heard people screaming and crying. I felt the heat of the fire and I started to panic. I thought I was going to die," she said.

Gallo said she went back into her apartment, forced open a window and climbed onto the fire escape. She said about 15 people were on the roof.

"Everyone was helping everyone," she said. "We climbed on the roof and jumped on the next building."

The building is on a short residential street near the Manhattan Bridge in the heart of Chinatown, not far from the main artery, Canal Street, where vendors hawk everything from knockoff handbags to live frogs and bootleg DVDs.