5-year-old killed, 2 hospitalized after fire at multifamily home in the Bronx
WAKEFIELD, The Bronx (WABC) -- Firefighters battled an all-hands fire Wednesday evening in the Bronx that left a 5-year-old boy dead and two other people injured.
At around 5 p.m., FDNY responded to reports of a fire in the basement of a home on Barnes Avenue, where at least three generations of a family lived. The youngest family members were a 5-year-old boy and a toddler.
Neighbors told Eyewitness News that the family also rented out a basement apartment to a tenant and that's where the fire started.
When firefighters got to the home, they say the basement was filled with smoke and 5-year-old Kashmir Marquis was found on a bed. He was rushed to Jacobi Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Surveillance video from across the street showed smoke coming from the basement and several people in a panic and helping out those still inside in the moments before firefighters got there.
"I saw them running trying to bring the babies out and they were able to get some of them out, but I think it was just so bad that one of the babies didn't make it, didn't survive," neighbor Michelle Durrett said.
"He was a nice kid. He was very smart, too. It hurts me a lot," family friend Robert Henry said.
The boy's 83-year-old grandmother and 26-year-old aunt were also transported to Jacobi for smoke inhalation. They're both expected to survive.
"Three other people did go to the hospital with minor injuries as well. I don't know if they were home at the time," FDNY Deputy Chief Kenneth Scanlon said.
The 83-year-old woman has lived in the home for decades, according to a neighbor.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Officials with the Department of Buildings say the basement apartments were illegally subdivided and issued violations to the homeowner.
Marquis is the second child killed in a house fire in the last three days.
A 7-year-old girl was killed in a house fire on Staten Island on New Year's Day.
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