Elderly woman dies in Brooklyn house fire
A woman was killed in a Brooklyn house fire early Monday, authorities said.
The blaze broke out inside the three-story brick rowhouse on E. 52nd St. near Avenue D in East Flatbush at about 3:10 a.m., police said.
After firefighters responded to battle the fire, the woman, described by neighbors as elderly, was found dead on the second floor. Cops are working to identify her.
The victim mostly kept to herself and had a home care aide, neighbors said.
“Pleasant, respectful lady,” a longtime acquaintance said. “I don’t even have words to explain it. I’m really in shock.”
“I just heard a lot of glass breaking, like someone demolishing stuff,” said next-door neighbor Yonette Benjamin, 50, who was drawn to her window by the sound.
“It was an unusual sound that I was hearing. The noise just kept going, and when I went back in I started smelling something. I went back to the window and looked out, and I saw smoke and the red glare of fire. I said ‘No! No! No! We have to get out.”
Benjamin fled her home with her 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter along with her mother and watched as smoke consumed the neighbor’s attached home.
Others in the home that burned escaped.
FDNY fire marshals will determine the cause of the fire.
