Fire Breaks Out In Overcrowded House In US, Kills 3 Men & Injures 8

Three men were killed after an overcrowded house caught on fire in Queens, New York, United States, in the wee hours of Sunday. Eight other people were taken to area hospitals and were said to be in a stable condition.

According to The New York Times, firefighters arrived at the scene swiftly, but the blaze, which had started on the first floor, had reached the top of the house very quickly. There were people living on all floors of the home.

Investigators believe that smoke detectors were not installed at the time of the incident, which occurred around 1:30 am, according to the Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) Commissioner Robert Tucker. Speaking to the media, Tucker stressed that “smoke detectors save lives”, as per NBC York.

The exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. However, officials said that the house was overcrowded with people, which had a makeshift partition wall creating small rooms. Tucker said that possessions blocked the stairways and that there were too many extension cords.

The victims were all men who were 45, 52 and 67 years old, the police said.

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Overcrowded House 

A tenant, Tony Rock, was awoken by the thick black smoke and dived out of his first-floor window to escape. He was one of the survivors and estimated that around a dozen people lived in the house. Another tenant, Adham Ammar, who had lived in the house for seven years, said he discovered his room listed on Craigslist. He hoped his immigration papers were among the salvaged documents.

Ammar, 29, originally from Egypt, told The New York Times that many of the residents were immigrants. He acknowledged that the house was overcrowded but chose to stay because it was affordable and located near Queens College, where he was studying.

A neighbour, Jaspal Sidhu, identified the landlord as Misbaah Mahmood, who also lives in Queens, with the woman listed as the owner of the property on Chevy Chase Street, the report said according to the report.

 

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