A 50-year-old man has died and two other people were injured after a fire broke out in a Queens apartment with smoke alarms that did not work, the FDNY says.
Flames broke out on the 5th floor of a residential building on Elmhurst Avenue around 3 a.m. Monday, according to fire officials. Three people suffered from smoke inhalation and one of them, later identified as George Ortega, was pronounced dead at the hospital.
A 30-year-old man was in critical condition and a 36-year-old woman was in stable condition, police said.
Firefighters said they found two men unconscious in a bedroom and they also rescued a woman who was trapped behind a child gate on the 5th floor window.
The building did not have working smoke detectors, according to FDNY Deputy Chief Mark Ferran. The FDNY says the cause of the accident was accidental and caused by a power strip.
