MORRIS HEIGHTS, The Bronx (PIX11) — One person is dead, and 10 others are injured, including one person critically, after a bad fire at a residential building in the Bronx that has been the site of at least one other fire in recent months.
Now, concerns about some residents’ mental health are front and center.
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The fire broke out just before 7:45 a.m. Wednesday on the fourth floor of 1484 Montgomery Ave., a six-floor residential building.
Two doorbell cameras on the floor where the fire ignited showed an intense scene. Flames shot out from around the frame of an apartment on the floor, and in less than two minutes firefighters were on the scene.
Residents evacuated immediately, as smoke alarms went off. Uneek Valentin was among the evacuees.
“I saw the smoke” she said, “and i just went to my kids’ room, and my kids’ room was engulfed with black smoke.”
She said that she also heard screams from a man who lives in the apartment that caught fire, and when she went to look out of her apartment window, she saw the man.
“When I went to see where he was at,” she said,” he threw himself out the window.”
He landed on the ground, four stories below.
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She and other residents also said that Wednesday’s fire was the second in the building in less than 12 weeks. The FDNY confirmed their account.
Residents called for stronger mental health screenings for potential residents, some of whom, they said, had been allowed to rent using vouchers after leaving mental health facilities.
The cause of Wednesday’s fire is still under investigation. The FDNY confirms that its investigators are reviewing surveillance video to see if the fire may have been intentionally set.
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