Here’s more on this morning’s fire at the Alfred E. Smith Houses. According to NY1, Six people were taken to area hospitals. Flames erupted around 7:30 in an apartment on the 8th floor at 388 Pearl Street.
The New York Post tells the story of 22-year old Willis Febow, who escaped out a window with his nephew, a toddler, clinging to his neck. Febow began making his way down a ladder; firefighters met him halfway. “I was told that my daughter, Justine, and my grandson, Emory, were hanging outside of their window and I nearly had a heart attack,” the boy’s grandmother, Judith Hernandez, told the Post. “All I can say is thank you Lord, thank you for keeping them safe.”
Another resident, 29-year old Elvis Diaz, said he was awakened by his sister. “She was yelling fire, fire and I looked out my window and there was smoke coming out of my building and I freaked out,” he recounted.
NY1 reported that one man tried to jump to safety without assistance. Battalion Chief Ron Schmutzler said, “The man was actually on the window sill. He had bed sheets tied together, ready to slide down the bed sheets. We had the ladder companies and the engine companies going up the interior of the building trying to make a push down the hallway.”
Investigators have not determined the cause of the fire.
