A 70-year-old man was killed early Tuesday when a fire tore through his Bronx NYCHA apartment, FDNY officials said.
The victim is the latest elderly New Yorker to die in a fire in the last couple months, a string of more than a dozen deaths an FDNY officials has called “very, very concerning.”
The latest fatal fire broke out inside a fourth-floor apartment in the Eastchester Gardens public housing complex near Burke and Hering Aves. about 3:10 a.m.
The victim died at the scene. His name was not immediately released.
Firefighters rescued several other people trapped inside the burning apartment.
The fire was put out within 50 minutes. More than 60 firefighters responded to the blaze.
FDNY fire marshals have been tasked with determining what sparked the fire.
The string of recent fatal fires with elderly victims has included a 95-year-old Queens grandmother who died along with her great granddaughter, an 89-year-old Bronx man who had just beaten cancer and a 90-year-old sharecropper’s daughter from Georgia who dedicated her life to teaching.
“This year’s percentage is higher than we’ve experienced in the past,” FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Dan Flynn told The News recently.
Of the 59 fire fatalities across the city this year as of Dec. 19, 37 victims, or 64% of the total, were 65 or older. Last year at this time, the city had seen 73 fire fatalities with 32 victims, or less than half, 65 or older.
“That’s a very, very concerning statistic,” he said.
Though he couldn’t point to any particular reasons for this year’s spike, Flynn explained that elderly New Yorkers are generally more vulnerable to fires.
FDNY officials last month encouraged residents to hash out escape plans with their elderly relatives, friends and neighbors in case a fire breaks out in their homes.
