A young woman with special needs who used a wheelchair lost her life in a house fire in the Bronx on Saturday, just hours before her 14th birthday, authorities reported.
Identified as Skylar Michilin, she was sleeping in her room on the second floor of her family’s home on Boyd Avenue between Bussig and Pitman avenues in the Wakefield neighborhood when flames broke out at approximately 4:15.
“I saw the flames. There were two of us outside (another lady said she had already called the fire department). I yelled, ‘Fires, we need people to help,'” said Erdene Kims, 21, who lives on the block.
“A couple of people came in, they tried to get in with their phones, but they couldn’t locate her,” Kims added.
“We saw the window break, then we saw the flames coming through the window right on the second floor and all you could have done is say, ‘Lord Jesus, we need you.'”
The girl was pronounced dead at the scene.
Another person suffered minor injuries during the fire, the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) said. The blaze was controlled around 5:00 p.m.
Michilin had gone to rest in his room moments before the fire started, his mother lamented.
“I talked to her at lunch and fed her, changed her and gave her lunch; He loves McDonald’s fries. “She was in bed when I came out around 12,” said Rosemarie Thompson.
“Tomorrow we would have a big day for her. It was on her iPad. She loved movies, she loved Bart Baker, she loved Christmas songs. Every September she starts listening to them. Mariah Carey was her favorite moment. “Her iPad was her friend,” the New York Post reported.
“She gave me the biggest hugs,” he added.
The mother collapsed in the street as detectives carried her daughter’s body out of the house at 9:00 p.m. as she screamed, “I want to see Skylar.”
Another woman identified as Collen also broke down on the sidewalk and said, “Why did you take her from me, Jesus? Oh God. Because!”
The young woman, who did not speak and had Down syndrome, used a wheelchair to go to school, which she attended in P10 in Throggs Neck.
Her family had moved in with her in the house in Wakefield 11 months ago, said one of the residents of the area.
Neighbors described Skylar as a friendly girl with a passion for music.
“Everyone is very distraught,” said Natalia Greene, 21. “Lots of love. Incredibly fun-loving and outgoing.”
Another of the neighbors present said that the teenager “was a nice girl. Sweet girl. She was disabled so she didn’t interact with us much. She would interact with her brother. She was a really nice girl.”
The cause of the accident remains under investigation.
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