NY Daily News – March 28, 2016
by Keldy Ortiz, Thomas Tracy
A massive Washington Heights fire started by a knocked-over candle early Saturday left four people hospitalized and two families homeless, officials said.
The candle sparked a blaze inside a sixth-floor apartment in the building on W. 151st St. near Broadway after it was knocked over about 12:15 a.m., FDNY officials said.
Smoke from the heavy blaze quickly filled the building’s hallways.
“I saw the smoke and I started to panic,” said a woman who lives in the building with her mother and two nieces, who gave her name only as Cheryl. “The smoke was above the top of my head.”
Cheryl and her family managed to escape, but she was uncertain if they would be able to return to the apartment.
Wrapped in a Red Cross blanket, first-floor tenant Matthew Ming said he was asleep when the blaze started. Neighbors furiously pounded on his apartment door telling him to get out
“I ignored it,” said the 32-year-old security guard. “(But then) I smelled smoke. It must have been serious.”
Nearly 140 firefighters were called in to extinguish the blaze, which was brought under control at 2 a.m.
Two firefighters and two civilians were taken to Harlem Hospital with minor injuries, an FDNY spokesman said.
The Red Cross was on hand to provide shelter for the two displaced families, an agency spokesman said.
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