Early Morning Fire At 1434 Flatbush Avenue Kills One Man, Injures 16 People

A 24-year-old man died and 16 people were injured following a two-alarm fire at 1434 Flatbush Avenue, near Farragut Road, early this morning, according to the NYPD and FDNY.

The man who died, whose name has not been released, was rushed to New York Community Hospital but could not be saved, the Daily News reported. Of the 16 people who were injured and hospitalized, two are currently listed in critical condition and 14 are in stable condition, the NYPD said.

The fire broke out on the second floor a little after 12:30am, and 106 firefighters from 25 units fought the blaze until it was extinguished around 1:50am, the FDNY said. The three-story building, which housed a church on the first floor and residential units on the top two floors, was destroyed.

Photo courtesy Yu Lew

Residents living in the building described the terrifying scene to the Daily News:

One man, who was helplessly clinging to a woman’s thin sweater for warmth in the frigid cold, said firefighters rescued him from the blinding smoke inside the building.

“I was sleeping and my girl just started screaming, “Fire! Fire! Get out! Get out!” And I just got up and started running but there was nowhere to go,” said the man, who lived on the second floor.

“The fire department came to take me out. I was trying to walk but it was so dark. Finally I hear someone yelling, ‘Where are you? Where are you?”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, according to the FDNY.

Our thoughts go out to the victim and his family and to our neighbors now in the hospital.