A six-year-old girl was among three people who died Wednesday afternoon when a fire tore through a home in the East Elmhurst section of Queens.
WPIX reports that the fire was reported just after 4 p.m. when a tenant on the first floor heard a smoke detector going off and called 911 before evacuating.
Two other residents were able to evacuate but sustained critical injuries, while the girl and two additional people remained trapped inside as FDNY crews arrived on scene and began attacking the fire.
The young girl was pronounced dead at the scene and two were later pronounced dead at a hospital. The two who managed to escape—reportedly a 1-year-old boy and an adult—remain in the hospital in what the FDNY described as "extremely critical condition with burn and smoke injuries."
"Unfortunately it’s a sad afternoon here in East Elmhurst," FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said. "It’s quite unusual at that time in the afternoon to have a fire trap five occupants in a private dwelling. The first call we received came from the occupant of the first floor apartment in that home who heard an alarm going off and called 911.”
