Newsman: A house has burned in fire in Queens on early Easter morning killed three people, and a fourth person is fighting for their life, the FDNY said Sunday.
Firefighters said the home at 87-25 Chevy Chase St., near Henley Road, in Jamaica Estates had multiple makeshift walls and exits were blocked, making the blaze all the more difficult to put out.
The FDNY said the call came in around 1:40 a.m. for a fire on the first floor that quickly spread to the second. The NYPD said three men in the home — ages 45, 52 and 67 — did not make it out alive.
“These were all living spaces. The means of egress were substandard — exits blocked, stairways blocked,” FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said. “There was a wall through the middle of the kitchen, which is very abnormal, and there’s makeshift access to the second floor, which allows the fire to spread much quicker upstairs.”
The FDNY said four firefighters and four civilians sustained minor injuries.
DOB tried to investigate illegal conversions
The Department of Buildings says since 2020 its received multiple complaints about illegal conversions inside the home, but four times inspectors tried to get in and could not.
A surviving occupant said the landlord charged around $400 per month for a bed, with a shared bathroom and kitchen.
The DOB said a violation was issued in 2010 for the basement being illegally converted into an apartment, and again in 2016 for work without a permit.
For now, the agency has issued a vacate order and the investigation is ongoing.
