One of three people hospitalized after a blaze early Friday in a Bronx building succumbed to his injuries, police said Saturday.
Firefighters pulled Lester Marquez Ortiz unconscious and unresponsive, from the top floor of the burning six-story building on Holland Ave. near Astor Ave. in Allerton.
Ortiz, 48, suffered smoke inhalation and burns, and was undergoing treatment at Jacobi Medical Center when he died, said cops.
Scene of a three alarm fire on the sixth floor at 2309 Holland Avenue in the Bronx on Friday. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
Two other people hurt in the blaze were taken to Jacobi Medical Center in stable condition, cops said.
The three-alarm blaze drew over 130 firefighters to the building at about 6:16 a.m., where they arrived to find a “heavy fire on the top floor,” FDNY Deputy Chief John Sarrocco told reporters at the scene.
Scene of a three alarm fire on the sixth floor at 2309 Holland Avenue in the Bronx on Friday. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
Tenants on Friday described a chaotic scene as people fled to the street and others trapped inside called for help.
“They were screaming ‘Help us! Help us!.” said Lilian Herring, 70, a retired watch company clerk who lived one floor below the fire’s origin in the building.
One of those rescued was Manuel Lopez, 57, who even as the flames surrounded his sixth-floor home stayed behind to rescue one of his dogs, a mutt named Betty Boots who had lived with him for 16 years.
Betty did not survive the blaze.
Manuel Lopez with his his dog Betty Boots.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Saturday, the Fire Department said.