A four-alarm fire fanned by fierce winds killed four people, including one child, in Queens on Monday afternoon and injured 12 others, at least one of them critically, the authorities said.
Three people tried to escape the fire by jumping out of windows on the upper floors of the three-story brick building at 44-49 College Point Boulevard in Flushing. It was not clear if any were among the dead. Two firefighters were injured when a staircase inside the building collapsed, the Fire Department said. The other injured people were not seriously hurt.
Brian Zhang, an employee at a kitchen design store four doors down, said a man ran into his store asking for a ladder. “He said there were people trying to jump from the third floor,” Mr. Zhang said.
Then, as the wind whipped gray smoke and flames, Mr. Zhang heard a woman screaming in Mandarin, “My kid is still in the apartment!” The woman said her child was 3 years old. Mr. Zhang said he wanted to cry. “It was very desperate,” he said. “I have a kid too, but that moment, there’s nothing we could have done.”
Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said, “This is a difficult and tragic day.”
The fire was called in at around 12:30 p.m., Ms. Bonsignore said. By the time the firefighters arrived four minutes later, the building was heavily engulfed in flames, officials said. Firefighters rescued one person who was trapped on the second floor. The dramatic scene saw emergency medical workers performing C.P.R. on victims in the street, said Kevin Woods, the Fire Department’s chief of fire operations.
More than 230 firefighters and paramedics responded to the fire. “The Fire Department did an extraordinary job under difficult circumstances putting this fire out and saving people,” Ms. Bonsignore said.
The ground floor of the building holds the Queens office of ABCPOS, a company that sells point-of-sale equipment, like payment systems, to stores.
Lillian Luo, a marketing specialist for the company, said no one there was injured. “We were in the office, and we called the police,” she said, adding that she believed the fire started on the second floor.
There are also five apartments in the building, located on a corner of a commercial block lined with restaurant supply stores.
Ellen Yan contributed reporting.
Ashley Southall writes about cannabis legalization in New York.
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