A Brooklyn man was seriously injured in a desperate leap from his fourth-floor apartment after his kitchen caught fire on Tuesday, firefighters said.
After firefighters snuffed out the blaze, the NYPD’s bomb squad was called in to investigate suspicious devices found a floor below where the fire ignited, law enforcement sources told the Daily News.
Shawn Inglima/ New York Daily News
Firefighters respond after a man was seriously injured after jumping from his fourth-floor apartment in Williamsburg during a fire on Tuesday. (Shawn Inglima/ New York Daily News)
The 50-year-old victim became trapped inside his top-floor apartment on Keap St. near Marcy Ave. in Williamsburg after the blaze erupted in his kitchen around 11:30 a.m., FDNY Deputy Chief Joe Duggan told reporters at the scene.
Surrounded by smoke and searing heat, the victim chose to escape the fire by leaping through a front window to the street just as firefighters were arriving on scene, Duggan said.
“He jumped before we had an opportunity to get our equipment in place,” Duggan said. “If you’ve ever been in a room on fire, it does greatly panic you at times. He felt he had to go. He couldn’t wait.”
Shawn Inglima/ New York Daily News
Firefighters respond to a fire in a top-floor apartment on Keap St. in Williamsburg on Tuesday. (Shawn Inglima/ New York Daily News)
The victim was seriously injured but was conscious and talking as Hatzola medics rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, Duggan said.
Firefighters managed to contain the fire in the kitchen after a nearly hour-long battle, Duggan said.
Officers called in the department’s bomb squad about an hour after the fire was extinguished, cops said.
A law enforcement source said suspicious devices were found on the building’s third floor.
Fire marshals are investigating the cause of the fire.