By FireRescue1 Staff
MOUNT EDEN, N.Y. — One man died and seven people were injured in an apartment fire in the Bronx on Saturday, according to fire officials.
Juan Martez, 46, was found unconscious in a stairwell and later pronounced dead, according to NY1. Seven injured residents were taken to a local hospital.
Over 100 residents live in the apartment building, leaving more than 30 families homeless and in the care of the Red Cross after the weekend’s fire.
It took 70 firefighters to extinguish the fire.
“I saw a couple of people jump from the fire escapes,” apartment resident Kwame McMillan, 22, told the New York Daily News. He helped his 71-year-old grandmother escape from their first-floor apartment.
Fire marshals are investigating what was a “suspicious” fire. NBC New York reported police are searching for teenage boys who allegedly were in the apartment lobby before the fire began.