By Kerry Burke, Nicholas Williams
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — At least one woman was left in critical condition and nine others were injured, including a firefighter, on Tuesday afternoon after a kitchen fire erupted in a six-story building in the Bronx, the FDNY said.
A total of about 60 firefighters and EMS personnel rushed to the scene around 3:11 p.m. at Grand Concourse and McClellan St., where flames broke out in a third-floor apartment.
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Firefighters rescued two women who they found together in a third-floor apartment, one of them unconscious. The FDNY initially said both women were in critical condition.
However, Mohammed Ibrahim, the grandson of the older of the two women, said he spoke with her and that she’s doing OK. He said he doesn’t know the other woman who was found unconscious with her.
Ibrahim said his grandmother told him she was trying to deep-fry some chicken when she inadvertently started the fire.
“My grandmother was cooking with oil,” he said. “She hadn’t put in the chicken yet, and [the oil] blasted out. She tried to get help, but by the time we got here, everything was burnt out.
“I don’t know who the other woman is,” he said. “It’s really sad.”
“I heard someone screaming,” Frances Ortega, who lives on the place’s second floor, said. “They were saying, ‘Fire! Fire! Get out!’ I didn’t hear any alarm. The fire was bright red, and the smoke was jet black.”
“The firefighters carried them out and put them on stretchers,” Ortega said. “The older lady was still conscious. The younger lady was just limp.”
Seven other people, plus one firefighter, suffered minor injuries.
The blaze, which was confined to the one apartment, was brought under control at 4:05 p.m. There was smoke damage on the building’s upper floors and water damage on the lower floors.
The fire’s cause is being investigated by FDNY marshals.
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