NY Post – April 25, 2017
by Abigail Gepner and Natalie Musumeci
The Queens home where five people died over the weekend did not have any smoke detectors, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said Monday.
“It’s a very sad day in our city when five lives were taken from us — five promising young lives,” Nigro said at a press conference.
The Queens Village house on 208th Street quickly went up in flames Sunday afternoon, killing four children and a 20-year-old woman, officials said.
Responding FDNY crews “made a very daring and valiant push to get into that building. They knew there were people inside,” Nigro said, adding that the home burned fast.
“They’re wood-frame, they will burn rapidly,” Nigro said of the homes in the neighborhood.
There was an initial report that the blaze may have started when a car parked in an alley between two homes caught fire, but Nigro said that does not seem to be the case.
“Until we have the cause of the fire, we cannot discuss what is the cause … but we do not believe at this time that it was started by a car,” said Nigro.
The fire commissioner said that “as far as we know,” the home was up to code, aside from the lack of smoke alarms.
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