Fiery nightmares
Two elderly women die in day of blazes
By LORENA MONGELLI, KIRSTAN CONLEY and FRANK ROSARIO
Last Updated: 3:54 AM, February 8, 2011
Posted: 2:14 AM, February 8, 2011
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Raging fires ripped through several homes in The Bronx and Brooklyn yesterday, leaving two elderly women dead and more than a dozen other people injured, officials said.
Beloved retired schoolteacher Mary Mullen, 82, died in one of the blazes, which broke out shortly after 2:30 a.m. in her apartment building on Valentine Avenue in Fordham Manor in The Bronx.
Officials gave no immediate cause for the blaze.
Neighbors described the religious Mullen as a hoarder whose clutter in her third-floor home may have been a fire hazard.
"She saved fliers from every church she had ever been to," said the building's manager, Maria Pimentel.
CLOSE CALL: A firefighter scurries up a ladder to escape flames bursting out of an apartment window in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, yesterday.
Reuters
CLOSE CALL: A firefighter scurries up a ladder to escape flames bursting out of an apartment window in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, yesterday.
"I helped her move apartments just to give her a clean start. I wouldn't find one broken umbrella. I'd find five. She said, 'When I was growing up, I didn't have anything.' "
Sixty firefighters put out the blaze in less than 30 minutes.
Three hours later and eight blocks away, firefighters raced to a building on North Street in University Heights, where flames tore through another third-floor apartment.
Firefighters removed 86-year-old resident Janet O'Shea from the apartment, but she was already dead.
Neighbors said O'Shea lived by herself, although a home health aide visited on occasion.
She used a walker, they added, so it might have been difficult for her to get out in time.
"I heard a woman screaming," said Natividad Santos, who lives on the fifth floor. "She was saying, 'I'm scared, I'm scared.' "
Last night, a fast-moving inferno tore through an apartment building on MacDougal Street in Brownsville, Brooklyn -- leaving 15 people treated for smoke inhalation and some trapped residents jumping from the fire escapes.
"When we opened the door, there was too much smoke," said 15-year-old Chere Baird, who lives on the second floor.
Her uncle ran through the blinding smoke to get outside, where he called out to a terrified Chere to jump into his arms from the fire escape. She did, and was not injured.
The fire started at around 9:15 p.m. on the first floor.
None of the victims was badly injured.
Earlier in Brooklyn, a fourth fire gutted a shuttered bakery and spread to several upstairs apartments and two adjoining buildings in Greenpoint.
The blaze broke out on Conselyea Street near Union Avenue at about 12:30 p.m.
Two firefighters were hospitalized with minor injuries. A third suffered more serious, unspecified injuries, officials said.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Bain, John Doyle and Jessica Simeone
lorena.mongelli@nypost.com
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