By Thomas Tracy, Leonard Greene
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — The Queens building where a fire killed a mother and her newborn girl, and left a 22-year-old man clinging to life, had no permit for a basement apartment, where the loss of life occurred, officials said.
Code enforcement critics, including local City Councilman Shekar Krishnan, have pointed to possible illegal subdivision as a contributing factor in the deaths.
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“This fire was an absolute tragedy for our community,” Krishnan said. “After hearing from the affected families and tenants, I am deeply concerned about the conditions in the buildings that led to this deadly fire. We remain committed to working with city agencies and organizations to provide support to the tenants.”
Meanwhile, Fire Department officials provided more details about what was involved in finding the people who perished in Monday night’s blaze.
Firefighters had just arrived and were putting up their tower ladders when “three people jumped from the rear windows of the building,” FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito told reporters. Two others were plucked from the windows by firefighters on ladders.
A few minutes into battling the raging blaze, one of the firefighters fell through a hole in the floor and into the basement, resulting in all firefighters being ordered out of the building.
Freezing water also blocked firefighters’ path.
More than an hour after they started fighting the blaze, officials were told that a mother and child were missing, and that they had been in the basement. By that time, the building had already suffered a partial collapse and half of the first floor had fallen into the cellar, Esposito said.
When smoke eaters finally got in, they found the body of Miguelina Alcantara, 34, but not her 17-day-old daughter, Emma.
“We called in our dewatering unit. We pumped the water out of the basement, and we still couldn’t find the child,” Esposito said. “We continued the search throughout the early morning hours of Tuesday, throughout the day Tuesday.”
It wasn’t until they brought in heavy machinery on Wednesday afternoon to remove the debris from the basement, that they found the child’s remains.
“This was an uncontrolled, rapidly expanding fire, not just in one location but three locations,” Esposito said of the blaze that spread to two adjacent houses. “We know the family is devastated, and our firefighters are devastated also. They could not save everybody.”
Esposito said everyone has been accounted for.
Crews were back at the scene assessing the buildings’ structural safety. Fire officials were also continuing their investigation into the fire’s cause.
The building that was destroyed and the two others that were damaged were authorized for a total of eight apartments, but they housed 14 families, officials said.
The fire left about 45 people homeless, officials said.
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