Amassive house fire in Queens has left three dead and eightmore injured, over the course of Saturday and Sunday in New York.
The family in Queens had been gathered to plan a wedding, when a fire broke out late on Saturday that killed two women and one man, officials said.
Eight others were sent to the hospital with serious injuries.
Elsewhere over the weekend, an apartment blaze in Harlem and an apparent suicide by fire in a Home Depot parking left one more dead and another 12 injured.
In Harlem, a total of 12 people were injured in an apartment fire that broke out in the mid-morning hours of Sunday.
Also in Queens, a man committed suicide on Saturday afternoon by setting himself on fire while inside his car, which was parked in a Home Depot parking lot.
A massive house fire in Queens, an apartment blaze in Harlem and an apparent suicide by fire in a Home Depot parking left four dead and 20 more injured, over the course of Saturday and Sunday; Victim from the Queens house fire, 32-year-old Harleen Kaur, is shown here
The house fire in Queens wreaked havoc on a family who had gathered to plan a wedding.
The people who died were a married couple, 82-year-old Ragvir Kaur-Kainth and 87-year-old Pyara Kainth, and their 32-year-old granddaughter, Harleen Kaur.
The brother and grandson of the deceased victims spoke to NBC News, about the devastation he was feeling after such a total loss.
The house fire in Queens wreaked havoc on a family who had gathered to plan a wedding
The brother and grandson of the deceased victims spoke to NBC News , about the devastation he was feeling after such a total loss
Some family members who survived had to jump out of windows to escape the blaze
‘Everybody is in a different hospital,’ he said. ‘My whole family, my grandparents, my uncle, my aunt, brother-in-law, my sister, my nephew and niece, everybody.’
Neighbors could be seen and heard wailing in the background as he spoke, mourning for the loss in their community.
Of the eight people who were taken to the hospital as a result of the fire, two of them were an eight-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy.
The people who died in the Queens house fire were a married couple, 82-year-old Ragvir Kaur-Kainth and 87-year-old Pyara Kainth, and their 32-year-old granddaughter, Harleen Kaur
Neighbors could be seen and heard wailing in the background as he spoke, mourning for the loss in their community
Of the eight people who were taken to the hospital as a result of the fire, two of them were an eight-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy, and one of the eight was in critical condition
One of the eight was said to have been in critical condition, though it’s not immediately clear whether that was one of the children.
A call came in to emergency responders reporting the fire on 211th Street in Queens Village just minutes before midnight, in the last moments of Saturday night.
It took 138 firefighters nearly 90 minutes to get the blaze under control.
A call came in to emergency responders reporting the fire on 211th Street in Queens Village just minutes before midnight, in the last moments of Saturday night
It took 138 firefighters nearly 90 minutes to get the blaze under control
Nothing immediately appeared suspicious to the firefighters, who said they were still investigating what sparked that fire.
In the Harlem apartment fire, an adult and two children suffered life-threatening injuries, while nine more were also hurt.
The blaze overtook the 29th floor of a building at the northeast corner of Central Park, starting at approximately 7.00am Eastern.
That fire is now raising questions about the buildings smoke alarms.
In the Harlem apartment fire, an adult and two children suffered life-threatening injuries, while nine more were also hurt
The blaze overtook the 29th floor of a building at the northeast corner of Central Park, starting at approximately 7.00am Eastern
Also in Queens, a 65-year-old man set himself on fire and died in a Home Deport parking lot, police said on Sunday.
The call came in during the afternoon on Saturday, directing police to find the man who suffered from schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder dead inside of his Toyota 4Runner, which was parked in the Home Depot lot on 31st Avenue near 123rd Street in College Point.
The body of the man, whose wife told police he has threatened to harm himself the day before, was found in the driver’s seat with a gas canister next to him in the passenger seat, the New York Daily News reported.
This comes just over two weeks after a well-known attorney gay rights and environmental activist burned himself to death in protest of use of fossil fuels in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
David Buckel, 60, set himself on fire on April 14, to be found in the early morning hours by park-goers.
‘My early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves,; he wrote in note with identification that he left near the spot where his charred remains were found.
‘Here is a hope that giving a life might bring some attention to the need for expanded actions, and help others give a voice to our home, and Earth is heard.’
Nothing immediately appeared suspicious to the firefighters who arrived to the site of the house fire in Queens, who said they were still investigating what sparked that fire