A 43-year-old woman was left in critical condition with severe burns after a fire tore through a home in Melrose, the Bronx, overnight, and two boys, ages 12 and 17, were also hurt. Seven residents were displaced and left without a home as crews battled the blaze before dawn.
The woman was taken to Harlem Hospital in critical condition, according to ABC7 New York, which reported that officials said she suffered severe burns. The two boys were transported to Lincoln Hospital and were listed in stable condition, per the same report. The station reported that the fire broke out inside a residence on East 154th Street just after 12:45 a.m. Tuesday, though PIX11 reported the blaze broke out in a two-story home in Melrose just after 1 a.m.; PIX11 also described two people taken to Lincoln Hospital as suffering only minor injuries, a detail that diverges from ABC7's account of the boys' conditions.
Firefighters moved quickly once they arrived. PIX11's report notes that 79 firefighters and EMS crew members worked the scene until the fire was brought under control roughly an hour after it started.
Seven Left Without Homes
Beyond the three people hospitalized, seven residents were displaced by the blaze and left without a home, the ABC7 report states. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, and the outlet's reporting notes that the FDNY had not released additional information about how the fire started.
Part of a Rough Stretch for the Borough
The overnight fire adds to a string of recent blazes in the Melrose section of the Bronx. A fire on the second floor of a building on Trinity Avenue in Melrose sent two people to the hospital, with one suffering minor injuries and another hospitalized with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to News 12 Bronx. In a separate incident, a three-alarm fire tore through a private home in Melrose on a Friday afternoon, displacing multiple residents, though News 12 Bronx reported no injuries in that blaze; the American Red Cross was assisting at least eight displaced residents from that fire, including three children.
PIX11's report also noted that the Red Cross was helping 314 people across the five boroughs following what it described as an alarming number of fire emergencies over the prior two weeks, a citywide figure not tied specifically to the Melrose incident. No further details on the condition of the injured woman and boys, or on the cause of the fire, had been released as of publication.
