{"id":142226,"date":"2020-12-27T03:08:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T00:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/man-describes-harrowing-escape-from-deadly-queens-house-fire\/"},"modified":"2020-12-27T03:08:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T00:08:13","slug":"man-describes-harrowing-escape-from-deadly-queens-house-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/man-describes-harrowing-escape-from-deadly-queens-house-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"#Man describes harrowing escape from deadly Queens house fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Man describes harrowing escape from deadly Queens house fire<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

A Queens man who barely escaped a \u201csuspicious\u201d house fire that killed three other tenants is haunted each day since by their terrified cries or help, he told The Post this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy head still plays them screaming for help and me looking at them,\u201d said the shaken former tenant, who recounted that horrible night in Elmhurst.<\/p>\n

Moments before his home caught fire on Dec. 19, the man, who asked not to be identified, was jolted awake by a strange noise \u2014 and then thrown into darkness. <\/p>\n

It was like the sound of a gas burner before it ignites, he recalled. <\/p>\n

Next was a crashing boom, and then whatever lights were still on, shut off. <\/p>\n

The tenant, who had lived in a room in the 48th Avenue house for two years, smelled smoke when he opened his door \u2014 then saw flames shooting from the top of the basement door. <\/p>\n

\"A
A body is removed from the house by firefighters.<\/figcaption>
Dan Herrick<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI put on my boots. I put on my coat as calmly as I could,\u201d he said. He tried to alert others by banging on doors and yelling, \u201cFire!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf (the door) hadn\u2019t created that barrier, I would have had to run through the fire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He called 911 as soon as he was out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI barely made it out of there alive,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Three others were trapp<\/a>ed inside, two in their rooms as doors to a second floor balcony were locked, blocking a route to safety. <\/p>\n

All three were found dead. Authorities have not publicly identified the victims. <\/p>\n

The FDNY has yet to determine the cause of the fire. The blaze \u2014\u00a0now deemed suspicious \u2014 is being investigated as a possible arson.<\/p>\n

The first floor tenant, who had been paying about $700 a month rent, said he and about half a dozen others living in the Elmhurst home had struggled with new landlords in recent months, claiming they wanted them out of the building \u2014 even at one point turning off the utilities. <\/p>\n

\"Firefighters
Firefighters are seen at the aftermath of the fire<\/figcaption>
Dennis A. Clark<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tenant had met landlord Eric Chen a couple of times and said in September or October, the landlord asked him how much money he wanted to be paid to move out. <\/p>\n

The resident said he didn\u2019t have time to discuss the matter.<\/p>\n

After the fire, police and fire marshals asked him what he knew about Chen and what communications he had with him, the tenant said, adding he reported the landlord\u2019s effort to get him out to the authorities.<\/p>\n

Authorities showed him a video of someone entering the home\u2019s yard before dawn on Dec. 19 and then walking away 15 to 20 minutes later. He said the man was wearing a black coat. He told police that he could not identity the person in the footage.<\/p>\n

A police canine found traces of an accelerant at the property.<\/p>\n

Police sources told The Post that traces of accelerant were also found on gloves inside Chen\u2019s car. They seized the SUV as well as computer equipment. The investigation is ongoing but police have not charged Chen, who could not be reached for comment, with a crime.<\/p>\n

A neighbor told The Post the building owner wanted to sell the property and was allegedly frustrated by occupants who wouldn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters
Seth Gottfried<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The property went into foreclosure last fall and was purchased by an LLC for $1.2 million in February 2020. Chen, 29, of Flushing, is listed in state records as the registered agent.<\/p>\n

Gustavo Escubero, 45, who was the super in the building before he left earlier this year, claimed in January 2020 several people would repeatedly come to the house or call tenants in an attempt to get them to move.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point they came and started breaking things,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were like warriors fighting to stay in our homes. I was psychologically sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he did not know if they represented a bank or the new owners, but a woman he described as being involved at the time gave her name as either Nancy or Alicia. <\/p>\n

Escubero took a $1,000 payout and departed in February 2020.<\/p>\n

Initial state documents for the LLC, filed on Jan. 2, 2020, list Nancy Xie as the organizer of the corporation. The name of the registered agent was changed to Chen in April 2020. It remains unclear whether Xie was the person Escubero recalled,\u00a0and whether she was\u00a0involved with the property\u00a0at the time of the fire. <\/p>\n

Xie could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

The home has long been riddled with city violations for overcrowding and other issues.<\/p>\n

The basement was padlocked and unoccupied at the time of the fire. The city had issued a vacate order for the space to the building\u2019s prior owner after he allegedly divided it into illegal apartments.<\/p>\n

At various points, dozens of people had been packed into the three-story residence, according to complaints.<\/p>\n

A prospective tenant complained to the city in January 2020 that 60 people lived there. A former resident put the number at about 30.<\/p>\n

\"FDNY
Dan Herrick<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many had left after the home was sold in February and the new owners allegedly turned off the heat. The first-floor tenant said the new landlords did not come to collect rent.<\/p>\n

City records show 16 complaints were made about a lack of utilities in February and March 2020.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Isabel Vincent<\/em>\n <\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Man describes harrowing escape from deadly Queens house fire” A Queens man who barely escaped a \u201csuspicious\u201d house fire that killed three other tenants is haunted each day since by their terrified cries or help, he told The Post this week. \u201cMy head still plays them screaming for help and me looking at them,\u201d said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/12\/deadly-queens-fire-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[87840,24175,61184,70234,11247],"class_list":["post-142226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-12-26-20","tag-death","tag-fdny","tag-fires","tag-queens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}