Fire officials say doors left open allowed smoke and heat to spread rapidly through a stairwell, trapping residents in a five-alarm blaze

By Julian Roberts-Grmela, Leonard Greene
New York Daily News

NEW YORK — Two people who perished in a fatal Bronx blaze didn’t stand a chance after their neighbors left a door open that allowed the fire to quickly spread, officials said Friday.

The victims, who died from smoke inhalation, might have made it out of the Belmont building alive if their neighbors had closed their doors and choked the oxygen that fed the massive five-alarm fire on Tuesday afternoon.

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Fire officials said the blaze started in a first-floor apartment, then shot up through a stairwell, and spread to other floors.

Fire officials say the door of the apartment where the fire started and the building’s front door were left open.

The victims who died were found in the stairwell.

“During this fire, the apartment door to the fire apartment was left open, so the fire, the heat, the smoke, the contaminants spread throughout this building, trapping members in their apartment,” said Kevin Woods, the FDNY’s chief of operations.

Those who did make it out of the burning residence can thank quick-thinking good Samaritans who erected portable ladders outside the Belmont Ave. building to help trapped residents, fire officials said.

”Somebody thought it was a good idea to prop open the front entrance door,” Woods said. “They thought they were doing the right thing.”

First responders saw multiple people on the roof, fire escape and in windows of the five-story building when they arrived. Firefighters quickly pushed portable ladders up against the building to help trapped residents get down.

“There were rescues going on at the front of the building and the back of the building,” Woods said.

The blaze fire brought back tragic memories of a fatal Bronx fire in 2022 that killed 17 people, including eight children. That Fordham Heights blaze was also spread by oxygen that fed the fire through open, faulty, self-closing doors.

In addition to the two victims who died, Tuesday’s Belmont blaze near E. 187th St. left 11 people injured.

A woman named Ashley, 25, whose father still lives in the building where she grew up, said she doubts he’ll be able to return to his apartment.

“They’re not saying anything. But from the looks of it, we don’t think we will probably ever go in,” she said. “But when we look inside the window, we do see some sentimental items. It really sucks to see that, not being able to go back in.”

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