The 90-year-old woman who died in the house fire reportedly suffered from dementia and lived in the home with her 56-year-old son and 54-year-old daughter.
Three people, including a 90-year-old woman suffering from dementia, died after a fire decimated their home in New York over the weekend, according to fire and law enforcement officials.
The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) said three people died on Sunday in a house fire in Queens, according to a Facebook post shared Sunday morning.
In an email to USA TODAY on Monday, New York police said officers learned that a 56-year-old man was found unconscious and unresponsive. Additionally, a 54-year-old woman and a 90-year-old woman were both taken to hospitals where they were pronounced deceased, according to police.
The 90-year-old woman was the mother of the other two victims, WABC reported. The brother and daughter looked after their mother who as a result of her dementia would wander the neighborhood, the New York-based TV station reported.
FDNY Fire Marshals are investigating the cause of the fire, according to the FDNY’s Facebook post. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the three victims’ cause of death, police said.
FDNY official: ‘It’s unacceptable’
FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said in the Facebook post, “First arriving units had smoke coming out of one of the cellar windows.”
“We had fire in the cellar, and that fire extended from the cellar up to the first floor, through the walls and a little bit into the second floor,” Esposito said. “There was a heavy smoke condition throughout the entire building. We located and removed two unconscious people from a first floor bedroom, and another victim from the cellar.”
FDNY Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker spoke to the media, including WABC, on Sunday and said, “It’s unacceptable to me, and we’re going to do everything at the FDNY to make sure that fire deaths stay low.”
“We’re certainly thinking about the families that are affected by this,” Tucker added, per WABC.
