Many people who lived in the building on East 22nd Street knew the mother and son.
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They've been living there for decades and they left an impression on everyone in the building.
"It's heartbreaking to see a good person die just like that," said Brenda Joachim, a neighbor.
Neighbors are still trying to wrap their heads around what happened.
One minute they were sleeping, the next moment a loud noise.
"The boom, the big boom, I thought it was a bomb, I was like, oh my God," said Marie, a resident.
"I heard a boom, it woke me up and I went to my door," said Petr Antuyne, a resident. "I cracked my door, smoke was coming in and then I realized we had a fire."
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Fire crews got a 911 call just after 2 a.m. Wednesday, and on the sixth floor found the fire, reported as a rubbish fire, in the hallway.
Many rushed to get out, but say the smoke was intense.
After getting the fire out, firefighters found a 59-year-old woman who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Fire crews pulled her 36-year-old son from the building and worked frantically to try to save him.
"I saw a stretcher and a guy being hauled off away they were doing some chest compressions," said Cartney St. Fluer, a resident.
He was rushed to the hospital, but didn't survive.
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The mother and son are now gone, but were not strangers to their neighbors, who say they greeted everyone they saw.
"He's a nice guy, up to yesterday I see the guy and he told me said he would come Friday to do the ceiling fan for me," said Janet Glasgow, a neighbor.
"He a sweet person, he loved his kids dearly, his kids were his everything," Joachim said.
"She raised a great son, so she herself had to be pretty great," St. Fluer said.
Fire investigators are still working to determine the cause.
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