NEW YORK — A 73-year-old woman was killed and eight residents were injured when a massive fire tore through their Bronx home Tuesday, New York Fire Department officials said.
The blaze broke out just after 9 a.m. inside the two-story home on Valentine Avenue near E. 182nd Street in Fordham Heights — just around the corner from Twin Parks North West, where 17 people died, including eight children, in a January blaze.
Tuesday’s blaze quickly spread to two adjoining buildings, said neighbor Mariel Diaz, who raced out of her home with her 65-year-old mother when they saw the smoke.
“We saw the fire immediately and it spread really quickly,” Diaz said as she watched an army of firefighters work to extinguish the blaze. “I just hope everybody got out. You can recover everything except for a life.”
Firefighters found one victim dead inside the home, police said. Her name was not immediately released.
An additional six residents and two firefighters suffered minor injuries, FDNY officials said.
Residents who escaped unhurt gathered at a church across the street from the burning home cradling photos and mementos they grabbed as they fled.
More than 160 firefighters and EMS members were called in to battle the blaze and treat the injured. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.
Tuesday’s fire was just 500 feet from the Twin Parks North West apartment complex. On Jan. 9, a fire inside an apartment quickly spread through the building, causing 17 deaths. It was the deadliest fire in the city in three decades. An electrical heater that had been running in the apartment for days sparked that blaze, fire marshals determined.
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