A 78-year-old woman was killed and 19 first responders were injured when a five-alarm fire tore through a row of homes in downtown Flushing, Queens, on Saturday morning. The blaze grew with frightening speed, leaving charred debris where family homes had stood and turning a residential block into a scene of chaos as thick black smoke rolled across the neighborhood.
The fire broke out a little before 10 o'clock in the morning near 41st Road and College Point Boulevard, drawing about 250 FDNY and EMS members to the scene. Officials say the flames spread from one home to three, and residents described smoke so heavy that at one point the entire block went black and the fire kept coming back no matter what crews did to knock it down.
The speed of the fire was driven in large part by how the homes were built. All three structures were wood-frame buildings, with walls, floors and roofs made of wood, allowing the flames to travel very rapidly from one house to the next. Citizen app video appeared to show residents trying to fight the ball of flames themselves before firefighters arrived, with fire roiling a good six feet above the roof line.
With one resident trapped inside, members from Rescue 4 pushed above the fire to the second floor of the main building without the protection of a hose line, working through high heat and zero visibility. They carried out searches under those conditions and were able to rescue an occupant from the second floor, one of the pivotal moments of the operation.
Despite the rescue efforts, a 78-year-old woman perished in the flames. Medics took two residents to the hospital, and officials say another occupant inside the building suffered minor injuries. The neighborhood, home to elderly residents and people who do not speak English, watched in horror as the fire reduced homes to smoldering wreckage and left families fearing for lost documents and belongings.
The toll on the responders was heavy as well. According to officials, 17 firefighters and two EMS members suffered non-life-threatening injuries while battling the blaze. Crews contended with smoke inhalation, heat exhaustion and minor sprains as they fought to contain a fire that had already jumped between the tightly packed wood-frame homes.
In the aftermath, the Red Cross moved in to assist four people from two households left without shelter, while neighbors spoke of a community trying to step up for those who lost everything. Firefighters remained at the scene into the evening, going in and out of the damaged properties to try to pinpoint exactly where and how the fire started, with the cause still under investigation.