A 49-year-old man was killed and three people were injured after a “suspicious” fire ignited on the top floor of a Brooklyn apartment building Monday afternoon, authorities said.
Two people, apparently workers in the building, plunged from the top floor as flames and smoke engulfed that part of the six-story building at 165 Rockaway Parkway in Brownsville, fire officials said. They were both rushed to the hospital after the FDNY arrived.
A building resident said she saw someone dangling from the top floor before dropping down.
“And just bounced on the grass,” resident Dy’Sylvia Ponder told The Post.
The face of the other man who dropped from the building “was busted open,” she said.
The one fatality was a 49-year-old man who was rushed to Brookdale Hospital where he was pronounced dead, the NYPD said. It’s unclear if the fatality was one of the two people who plunged from the top floor.
Footage from the scene showed two people kneeling next to a man who was motionless on the ground in front of the building.
“They took it into their own hands and yeah, would’ve been better probably to if they did not do that but they did that and they got out,” FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Carney said of the two victims who fell from the top floor.
Carney said during a news briefing that department personnel classified the fire as “suspicious.” The probe is ongoing.
About 60 firefighters and EMS workers responded to the scene within minutes, Carney said.
One of the three injured victims walked away with only minor injuries, the FDNY said.
One witness on the street heard an explosion before the fire began.
“Boom!” Corpus Hernandez told The Post. “Then I heard the screaming, then yelling out the window, the person out the window, then the two workers were out the window.”
He said one of the workers had a “dent in this head” after the fall.
“I was shocked myself that he was still breathing,” Hernandez said.
A first-floor building resident said she heard possible arguing before the blaze began. People were panicking as they fled the building.
“A lot of screaming, everybody was erratic because we didn’t know where the explosion was coming from,” Milagros Arias said. “We thought actually the building was coming down.”
