{"id":224506,"date":"2026-05-08T13:11:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/224506\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:11:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:11:40","slug":"queens-man-fought-raging-house-fire-with-garden-hose-but-couldnt-save-beloved-housemate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/224506\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens man fought raging house fire with garden hose, but couldn’t save beloved housemate"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queens man tried desperately to save a beloved family friend and housemate who became trapped in their burning home on Thursday<\/a>, battling through the blaze with a garden hose, only to reach him after it was too late, he told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

Harbhajan Singh was killed in the blaze that erupted in the two-family home on Lefferts Blvd. near 95th Ave. in Richmond Hill around 6:45 a.m. Thursday, Lakhwinder Singh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was dead by the time I got to him,\u201d said Singh, 44. \u201cHe was dead already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harbhajan lives with Lakhwinder and his family in the back of the Queens home, he said.<\/p>\n

\"AA man was found dead after a fire broke out inside a house on Lefferts Blvd. near 95th Ave. in Queens on Thursday. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Lakhwinder \u2014 who lovingly referred to Harbhajan as \u201cuncle,\u201d even though the two aren\u2019t related by blood \u2014 was sleeping when he awoke to his wife\u2019s screams.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018I\u2019m smelling smoke,’\u201d said Lakhwinder. \u201cShe said, \u2018Go check on uncle in the back.’\u201d<\/p>\n

He rushed to Harbhajan\u2019s room only to find smoke billowing out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI scream his name. I thought maybe he left to the temple, you know, maybe he left something on,\u201d said Lakhwinder. \u201cSo I grabbed the garden hose and I tried to put out the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lakhwinder said he was pouring water onto blaze when he finally spotted his friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of smoke. When the fire came down a little bit, I saw him laying down on the floor and and I screamed his name, like, \u2018Uncle, are you okay? Are you?’\u201d said Lakhwinder. \u201cHe was not responding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA man was found dead after a fire broke out inside a house on Lefferts Blvd. near 95th Ave. in Queens on Thursday. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Firefighters found the the victim\u2019s badly burned body in the back of the house, according to FDNY.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a fun guy,\u201d Lakhwinder said. \u201cI\u2019m feeling really sad, and I\u2019m shocked. It\u2019s sad that he passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harbhajan Singh was a former taxi driver who immigrated to the U.S. from India more than 20 years ago. He has a wife living in India and a son who lives in Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was great,\u201d said Sukhwant Singh Reel, 56, who worshipped at the Gurdwara Sikh Cultural Society with Harbhajan. \u201cHe was man of faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chairperson of Queens Community Board 9, Sherry Algredo, traveled to Lakhwinder\u2019s home to offer her condolences for his housemate\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met Mr. Singh, and he lost his uncle,\u201d said Algredo.\u201dOur condolences and prayers to the family, and you know we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA man was found dead after a fire broke out inside a house on Lefferts Blvd. near 95th Ave. in Queens on Thursday. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Lakhwinder said Harbhajan was best known for his unique wardrobe filled with \u201cshiny\u201d clothes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe liked to wear nice clothes,\u201d said Lakhwinder. \u201cA lot of the community, they know him by his clothes, like how he dresses up.\u201d<\/p>\n

FDNY fire marshals were working to determine the cause of the fire.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s blaze was the second fatal fire in the city within 24 hours, FDNY officials said.<\/p>\n

At about 5 a.m. on Wednesday in the Bronx, a fire broke out on\u00a0Third Ave.<\/a> near E. 140th St. in Mott Haven.<\/p>\n

More than 140 firefighters, EMTs and paramedics rushed to the blaze to find heavy flames shooting out of the El South Bronx Deli and the apartment above it.<\/p>\n

While firefighters first believed the upstairs apartment was vacant, neighbors said someone was living there. Once the fire was put out, cops discovered two bodies in the apartment \u2014 one found under a pile of rubble of collapsed ceiling, FDNY officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens man tried desperately to save a beloved family friend and housemate who became trapped in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,122,124,123,265],"class_list":["post-224506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224506","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=224506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}