{"id":316856,"date":"2026-08-08T19:46:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/316856\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:46:24","slug":"third-body-recovered-from-bronx-apartment-building-destroyed-by-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/316856\/","title":{"rendered":"Third body recovered from Bronx apartment building destroyed by fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

FDNY firefighters have recovered a third body from a demolished Bronx apartment building that caught fire following a massive explosion<\/a>, officials said Saturday.<\/p>\n

The body was found inside the rubble of the fire-ravaged E. 209th St. apartment building in Norwood just before 12 p.m., FDNY officials said.<\/p>\n

The deceased is an adult, but wasn\u2019t immediately identified Saturday. It wasn\u2019t clear whether the victim was a man or a woman, officials said.<\/p>\n

On Friday, firefighters recovered the body of a woman believed to be Mary Ann Martin, a\u00a0missing 65-year-old grandmother<\/a> whose husband also died in Wednesday\u2019s blaze.<\/p>\n

\"FDNYFDNY firefighters remove a body Friday from the Bronx apartment building destroyed by a fire that heartbroken family members believe is missing woman, Mary Ann Martin (inset). (Julian Roberts-Grmela \/ New York Daily News; Courtesy Family Photo)<\/p>\n

Martin\u2019s niece Tashaila Parks, who has been keeping a vigil at the destroyed Bronx building<\/a> near Parkside Place, broke down in tears Friday as firefighters brought the body out.<\/p>\n

Martin lived in a third-floor apartment with her 70-year-old husband, Lester \u2014 right above the apartment where an explosion sparked the five-alarm fire that gutted the building.<\/p>\n

Lester\u2019s body was found Wednesday as firefighters fought the blaze.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner technicians remove the body of an unidentified\u00a0 victim who was found dead in a five-alarm fire on E. 209th St. in the Bronx on Aug. 5, 2026. (Kerry Burke \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Parks believed the body recovered Friday was her missing aunt, who they have been frantically searching for ever since\u00a0the explosion tore through the building at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It\u2019s been) 48 hours since the fire started and we still have no location of my aunt Mary Ann Martin,\u201d Parks said just hours before the body was recovered Friday. \u201cWe keep getting told that they did find somebody, they didn\u2019t find somebody. We just need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had been together forever, for more than 40 years,\u201d Parks said of her aunt and uncle. \u201cThey were very much still in love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LesterLester and Mary Ann Martin are pictured in an undated photo. (Courtesy of family)<\/p>\n

Parks said Mary Ann was home at the time of the explosion.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy aunt usually doesn\u2019t go anywhere on Wednesdays. That\u2019s, like, kind of part of her routine,\u201d said Parks. \u201cSo, to our knowledge, she would still have been inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Firefighters were forced to wait before recovering any remains as they shored up the compromised building, officials said.<\/p>\n

FDNY Fire Marshals were only allowed into the building on Friday and have just begun their investigation into what sparked the massive blaze, a department spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s believed a gas explosion led to the fire, FDNY sources said.<\/p>\n

\"FDNYFDNY firefighters work the scene during a massive Bronx fire in a five-story apartment building on E. 209th St. near Parkside Place in the Bronx on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Lester Martin\u2019s body was found in a collapsed section of the building and had to be temporarily stored in an alley before being transferred to the hospital in a body bag late Wednesday, family members and sources said.<\/p>\n

Surveillance footage obtained by the Daily News shows the explosion erupting on the building\u2019s second floor, sending glass and other debris rocketing across the street.<\/p>\n

In another clip, a man can be seen walking on the opposite side of the street when he suddenly ducks, a flying window frame narrowly missing him as debris lands all around. A parked car visible in the frame takes the brunt of the shrapnel, which shatters its rear windshield, the video shows.<\/p>\n

\"FDNYFDNY firefighters and EMTs rush a fire victim to an ambulance during a massive Bronx fire in a five-story apartment building on E. 209th St. near Parkside Place in the Bronx on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Firefighters arrived within three minutes, but by that time multiple floors were already engulfed in flames.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some sort of explosion,\u201d FDNY Chief of Department Joe Esposito said Wednesday. \u201cIt blew out window frames, it blew some of them across the street, and when our members got up to the second floor, some of the apartment doors had been blown off their hinges.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis makes it very difficult to confine the fire while we\u2019re also conducting searches,\u201d he added. \u201cIt was a very unusual and extremely dangerous position for our firefighters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tenants told officials that they had smelled gas in the building before the fire.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn FDNY firefighter rescues a child (inset) during a massive Bronx fire in a five-story apartment building in Norwood on E. 209th St. near Parkside Place in the Bronx on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News; Obtained by NYDN)<\/p>\n

Dramatic photos taken from the scene show a firefighter on a tower ladder plucking a panicked child from a fire escape. Fourteen people were injured \u2014 two critically \u2014 in the conflagration and taken to local hospitals. Six firefighters were among the injured, officials said.<\/p>\n

The blaze was declared under control at 3:30 p.m. but small fires reignited throughout the rest of the afternoon, FDNY officials said. The fire was finally out by Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FDNY firefighters have recovered a third body from a demolished Bronx apartment building that caught fire following a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,11,10,12,261,265],"class_list":["post-316856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","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-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316856","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=316856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}