{"id":208048,"date":"2026-04-24T03:28:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208048\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:28:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:28:38","slug":"news-12-bronx-family-devastated-after-teen-killed-in-raging-belmont-apartment-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208048\/","title":{"rendered":"News 12 | Bronx | Family Devastated After Teen Killed In Raging Belmont Apartment Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">A 17-year-old girl is among two people killed after a <a data-rich-text-hyperlink=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/bronx.news12.com\/1-dead-in-4-alarm-building-fire-in-belmont\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">massive fire tore through an apartment building in Belmont Tuesday afternoon.<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Family members say they spent hours desperately searching for Michelle Gonzalez, calling her phone throughout the night\u2014only to later learn from the morgue that she did not survive.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cWhy was she left behind\u2026 why did we have to lose her\u2026 why,\u201d Gonzalez\u2019s sister-in-law, Anayeli Guzman, cried.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Fire officials say the flames quickly engulfed the building at 660 East 187th St., spreading rapidly up stairwells and walls. FDNY chiefs say the structure was not built to withstand a fire of this magnitude. Before firefighters could fully get inside, part of the building collapsed, injuring nearly a dozen people.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\"><a data-rich-text-hyperlink=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/bronx.news12.com\/man-searches-for-loved-one-after-deadly-belmont-fire-kills-2-displaces-dozens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gonzalez was visiting a friend at the time of the fire.<\/a> Her family is now left with painful questions.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cBut how was he able to come out of the building and she wasn\u2019t if they were together\u2026\u201d Guzman said.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Outside her home, loved ones have set up a candlelight vigil in her memory. Family members describe Gonzalez as more than just a teenager\u2014saying she was a loving aunt who adored her young niece.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cIt hurts me that she loved my little girl so much and that she\u2019s not going to see her grow up,\u201d a family member said.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Fire marshals have not yet determined the cause of the blaze.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">The family has organized a <a data-rich-text-hyperlink=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/gofund.me\/dca3746df\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">GoFundMe<\/a> to help cover funeral expenses, which has already raised more than $10,000. But for those who knew Gonzalez, the emotional loss is immeasurable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 17-year-old girl is among two people killed after a massive fire tore through an apartment building in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-208048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}