Queens Fire

Published on: September 3, 2021

9 year old New York City boy killed in fire sparked by defective electric moped batteries

A defective moped lithium battery is at the origin of a fire that killed 9 year old Remi Fernandez in his new apartment in Queens. Remi had just moved with his parents into a new apartment located on 102nd Road near 84th Street in Ozone Park, Queens, when a fire that was sparked by the battery of a moped charging in the apartment erupted around 2:00 am while the family was sleeping. Remi’s father suffered burn injuries as he was trying to rescue his little boy from their basement apartment. The apartment where the family had just moved in had no smoke alarm. The basement had been illegally converted into an apartment. The rest of the building was deemed unsafe by the Department of Buildings and all residents had to be evacuated. 10 other people including a firefighter were injured and transported to the hospital to be treated.

55 fires caused by defective lithium ion batteries over the last 12 months in New York City

Fire caused by defective lithium-ion batteries are on the rise in New York City. According to the NY Daily News, there were 55 fires caused by these types of batteries in New York City between August 1st 2020 and August 1st 2021 compared to 22 for the same period a year earlier. Sadly Remi is not the first victim to die in one of these fires. Last May in the Bronx, a 91 year old woman died and 11 people were injured in a fire sparked by a defective lithium battery in the third floor apartment of a six-story building in the Bronx. Earlier in January, a scooter charging in the living room of a Bronx apartment was at the origin of another fire that killed one and injured 12 others.

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Published on: July 27, 2020

3 women and a young girl critically injured in NYC apartment fire

By GGCRBHS&M

An overloaded power strip might have been the cause of a gigantic fire in a New York City residential building that caused 4 people to be critically injured. The fire occurred early last Friday around 12:15 am in a residential building located on 35th Ave near Rowan Street in Flushing, Queens, NYC. When the firefighters arrived they were able to pull a 9 year old girl, a 24 year old woman, a 32 year old woman and a 56 year old woman from their bedrooms. They were all unconscious and required CPR. All 4 were rushed to the hospital with critical injuries. The young girl suffered smoke inhalation while the 3 women were treated for burn injuries and smoke inhalation. The firefighter also saved a small hamster that is now in the hands of the Animal Care Center of New York City. Four fire fighters also suffered minor injuries while combating the fire and were also brought to the hospital to be treated.

According to preliminary investigations by the FDNY Fire Marshals, the inferno started on the first floor and might have been caused by a bad power strip to which an air conditioning unit was plugged into

Multiple extension cords plugged in with multiple devices might have overload the outlet and sparked the fire that quickly propagated to the entire two story building. The fire marshals didn’t mention if smoke alarms were installed in the apartments or not. In New York, the law requires that all apartments be equipped with smoke alarms. They might not have been installed or might not have been working proprely. Someone was seen on video throwing something at the home and investigators determined it was a good Samaritan trying to alert people inside that their house was on fire.

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Published on: May 24, 2016

Two deadly NYC fire accidents were sparked by lit cigarettes

By GGCRBHS&M

Two people died and one person was injured in two separate fire accidents in New York City yesterday. Both of them were sparked by lit cigarettes, officials said today. A first fire started Monday morning around 9:00 am in Queens. Andre Reid, a 69 year old retired firefighter died in the blaze. The man had first helped his wife getting out of the house and then he decided to go back in the house to retrieve something. Firefighters found him unconscious in his bedroom. He was transported to the hospital where he died from smoke inhalation. Later on during the day another fire was sparked by a lit cigarette in Brooklyn. The fire started in the bathroom of an apartment in Propsect Lefferts Gardens. There weren’t any smoke detectors in the apartment and the fire quickly spread to the rest of the apartment. A 65 year old woman died and another resident was injured.

Read more in the NY Daily News

Picture: courtesy of Wikipedia

Published on: April 22, 2014

An ambulance took 21 minutes to arrive at a Queens fire that killed two 4 year old children

By GGCRBHS&M

The Fire Department of New York is investigating why it took 21 minutes for an ambulance to get to a fire that broke out in a home in Far Rockaway, Queens last Sunday. The calls arrived in the 911 system at 11:51 am and at 11:56 am the firefighters arrived at the location of the blaze. The firefighters pulled two 4 year old children, Jai’Launi Tinglin and Ayina Tinglin (picture), from the fire and tried to resuscitate them but they were unsuccessful. They were asking: Where is EMS? Where is EMS?

According to the NY Daily News, the ambulance was only dispatched to the fire at 12:05 am, 14 minutes after the 911 call and arrived at the scene at 12:12 am, 21 minutes after the first call to 911.

It is not the first time that glitches happen with New York 911. In June last year, Ariel Russo was struck and killed by a reckless driver on the Upper West Side and glitches with 911 led to a 4 minute delay in the arrival of the ambulance. The Russo family is suing the city for negligence.