A Brooklyn apartment building caught fire Sunday morning as New York Fire Department officers tried to quickly put out the flames.
The fire started shortly after 9:30 a.m. Sunday at the top-floor apartment at 1347 East 17th Street in Midwood, where four people were rescued alive.
Firefighters managed to get a pregnant mother and her three children out of the smoke-filled apartment where they lived.
“We were all afraid that they would not make it out alive, they were being carried, it seemed that they were unconscious,” said neighbor Batya Chlai.
When fire crews arrived on the scene, they faced numerous challenges that complicated their rescue efforts, ABC 7 New York reported.
“It was a difficult search due to the amount of clutter in the apartment. Three of the victims were carried down the stairs of the building. One of the victims was carried on the fire escape in a tower stairwell,” explained FDNY Deputy Director James Smithwick.
The four victims of the fire were taken to a hospital for treatment.
An FDNY unit directly below where the fire started was badly damaged.
“It’s like a bomb went off, like Niagara Falls,” Smithwick said.
The FDNY is investigating the cause of the crash.
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