The dramatic video captures the moments when two teenager siblings escape from their 14-story New York City apartment through a fourth-floor window. As flames consumed their apartment, their mother was left critically wounded and her boyfriend killed.
Video shared by Justin Malpica via Storyful shows plumes of smoke billowing out the fourth-floor window of the Jacob Riis Houses in the East Village on Thursday as the two siblings – aged 18 and 13 – attempted the harrowing escape.
An 18-year-old girl was identified later as the victim. The black-clad teen climbed from the broken window to hang about 50 feet off the ground. She then latched on to a narrow yellow pipe fastened to the building as people below stretched out what appeared to be a sheet.
Her 13 year-old brother followed her through the smoke-filled apartment, and then he wriggled his legs in order to get to the pipe. His sister pulled him back to her.
Another video captured the teenagers shimmying down the pipe while flames shot through the window.
The moment that two teenagers ran out of an East Village apartment on the fourth floor as flames burst out from the building, was captured by video
The teens managed to escape from their apartments moments before huge flames burst through the windows they had just crawled through.
The girl, aged 18, climbed first out of the window and found her way to the yellow pipe.
After helping her brother, 13 years old, out of the windowsill and over to where she was holding onto the pipe, she then assisted him.
As a group of neighbours and other onlookers watched, the two teenagers grasped at the pipe.
With his sister following him, the 13-year old began climbing the pipe and made it to the top. The two of them safely reached the bottom with no life-threatening injuries
Firefighters arrived within four minutes after the 911 call at the NYCHA Complex at 118 Avenue D. The siblings continued their dangerous descent until the boy reached the ground safely after 25 seconds. His sister followed him after 17 more breathless seconds.
‘Her skin was off her arm, peeling,’ neighbor Shala Coleman told the NY Daily News. “I put her in the blanket. She was carried to me and another officer by a policeman.
They were unidentified and were taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill-Cornell in stable condition. However, a 46-year old woman who was identified as their mother was critical.
The mother of the children was discovered fighting for her survival in the apartment that was on fire. A dead adult male was also found after the fire broke out at 7am.
Although the cause of Thursday’s fire remains under investigation, fire crews said that it was caused by electric bikes.
Shaquane Mitchel, Neighbor said Mitchell and others attempted to As the mother shouted for help, the father broke down the front door to the apartment.
Both teens were taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell in stable condition
Mitchell stated, “We tried to kick the door in.” “She could not unlock the door,” said the mother. She yelled “I can’t get it open!”
The 20-year old Eyewitness Christian Cortes recorded the escape attempt of the teens from the outside.
Cortes said, ‘It’ was scary.’ I prayed to God that they would be able to descend safely. The pole was grabbed by her and it looked like she would let go.
Cortes said he saw bikes being thrown out of an apartment burning window.
The deceased victim ‘fixed bikes,’ next-door neighbor Ada Feliciano, 68, said.
When she visited her neighbor’s apartment, she commented on how many bikes were in the space.
Feliciano recalls that “the room was filled full of bikes.” I said that God forbid that there be a fire. What would you do to escape?
Feliciano stated after the fire, “God forbid! I predicted it!”
Ajello stated that four other people were also injured and three others suffered serious injuries.
Officials from the FDNY reported 93 lithium-bike battery-related fires this year. This is more than twice 2020’s 44. The fires caused the deaths of four persons and left 73 other people injured.
On Thursday, at 7:15 am, a fire broke out in an apartment block of the Jacob Riis New York City Housing Authority Building.
One man was killed and one woman critically ill in the fire. According to neighbors, the victim was the mother of the teenagers and her boyfriend.
Although the cause of the fire is still under investigation, neighbors believe it was caused by ebikes.
In a period of just 28 hours, the unidentified man who was killed in the fire at the complex housing public housing became the fifth victim of a fatal fire.
A 66-year-old unnamed man died at the BronxCare Health System after a fire inside NYCHA’s Butler Houses on Webster Avenue in the Bronx. Officials confirmed that the fire started from careless cooking.
Earlier that morning, 81-year-old Edgar Perez and his spouse Margoth, 75, were found unconscious and unresponsive after a fire broke out inside their fourth-floor apartment in Flushing, Queens.
According to fire department officials, the fire that claimed killed the couple at 4:30 AM was due to faulty or overloaded extension cords. The couple also didn’t have a fire alarm at their house.
Just an hour earlier, Shamel Babb (27), was discovered dead in his apartment on the third floor of NYCHA Brevoort Houses, Brooklyn. Fire officials confirmed the fire that broke out around 3:45 am was caused by careless cooking.