Second Victim Dies After Fire and Explosion in Apartment Building on the East Side
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A man injured in a three-alarm fire that ravaged an East Side apartment on Saturday night died yesterday, the second person killed by a blaze so intense that it caused a thunderous explosion that blew out the windows and showered the street with glass. The authorities said the second victim, whom the police had not been able to identify, never regained consciousness after he was pulled from the apartment with burns over 85 percent of his body. He died at New York Weill Cornell Center at 11:20 a.m. The first victim, a woman with blond hair who has also not been identified, was found dead in the burning apartment. Sgt. Andrew McInnis, a police spokesman, said investigators believed that the fire, which broke out at 10:25 p.m. Saturday in the top floor of a brick six-story apartment building at 408 East 65th Street, began in a fuse box and quickly spread, igniting a nearby mattress. ”It appears that there may have been improper electrical work done as late as the morning before the fire started,” Sergeant McInnis said. A fuse had been changed, he said, and it appeared the new fuse overheated and caught fire. More : query.nytimes.com |