4-alarm fire burns through Yonkers apartment building, 1 dead
YONKERS, Westchester County (WABC) -- One person was killed when a four-alarm fire burned through an apartment building in Yonkers on New Year's Day morning.
The fire broke out in a 4th-floor bedroom of the six-story building on Bruce Avenue just after 5 a.m.
Citizen App video showed flames shooting out of the building's windows. The building suffered extensive damage.
Yonkers firefighters responded to the scene as a third-alarm fire which quickly escalated to a fourth alarm.
One neighbor said he knocked on doors to help save residents' lives.
"I turned into a fireman," said Manny Vega, a neighbor. "We did what anybody would do, knock on every door, tried to get as many people out of the apartment as possible. Kids, we took out kids."
One person was killed in the fire. Their identity is not yet known. The building's super said that the victim was not a resident of the apartment building and is believed to have been a guest at a party on the 4th floor.
Fire officials said that three other people suffered non-life-threatening injuries and several firefighters also had minor injuries.
There was no obvious cause of the fire, although the assistant fire chief at the scene mentioned that space heaters and candles are common causes of fires this time of year.
The entire building, which contains at least 10 apartments, is uninhabitable due to the fire and water damage.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
RELATED: Yonkers experiences heartache at end of 2020 with deaths of four teens in crash
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