A “God-fearing” 90-year-old woman killed when a blaze tore through her Bronx home Tuesday night has been officially identified by authorities.
Allison Johnson, 90, was found lifeless inside the two-story apartment building on East 168th Street near Boston Road in Morrisania, where the fire erupted minutes before 9 p.m., police said Wednesday.
Johnson – a resident of the building who a neighbor said used a wheelchair and likely couldn’t escape – was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS, cops said.
Allison Johnson, 90, was killed when a blaze ravaged the two-story apartment building where she lived on East 168th Street near Boston Road, cops said. Peter Gerber
A neighbor said Johnson used a wheelchair and likely couldn’t escape from the burning building. Peter Gerber
“The lady that lives there, who is wheelchair-bound, that’s in that apartment. We haven’t seen nobody come out,” nearby resident Stacey said in the aftermath of the blaze.
“Nice lady too … just being neighbors on the block, you see her coming and going, we all say hi, everybody says hi to each other around here,” she said.
Dorita Joseph, one of Johnson’s neighbors for 25 years, said the nonagenarian was well-loved in the area.
The cause of the deadly fire remained under investigation Wednesday. Peter Gerber
“She is a godly woman, God-fearing, she is very friendly, she is very well known in the community,” Joseph recalled. “We love gardening, so we both exchange flowers. She taught me a bit about gardening.”
Roughly 60 firefighters and EMS workers rushed to the scene and extinguished the flames by 9:36 p.m., officials said.
The cause of the blaze remained under investigation Wednesday.