A 64-year-old father of three who jumped from a third-floor window to escape an early morning apartment fire in Brooklyn that injured five people, including a second man who leaped out the window, has died, a family member tells NBC 4 New York.
Tony Celestine died at Staten Island University Hospital Monday, hours after being taken there with critical injuries from the fall, the relative said. The female relative said a nurse told family Celestine had suffered internal bleeding; he was the father of three children, ages 27, 29 and 23.
Celestine and another man had to leap from the window after the blaze broke out at the building on Nostrand Avenue in East Flatbush around 2 a.m., authorities said.
Celestine, flames on his back, dove onto a mattress that neighbors placed on the sidewalk under the window; the other man, Jean-B Maurice, jumped onto an awning of a Caribbean restaurant.
Maurice told NBC 4 New York he was scared, but "I don't have any choice. I have to jump." He was taken to a hospital and released later Monday.
Cellphone video captured the chaotic moments as flames ripped through the building. Neighbors tried to warn residents when they saw flames shooting out of the windows by knocking on several doors.
Taliq Thomas said he was walking home when he saw the fire and tried to help.
“I went upstairs first and two other guys came behind me,” Thomas said. “We were like banging on doors, telling people to come out.”
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Fire officials ruled the blaze accidental, caused by overloaded power strips and extension cords.
It wasn't immediately clear how many people were displaced.
