Deadly New Year’s Eve blaze injures two firefighters
A Queens couple and their niece were killed in an apartment fire early Thursday that started when the family left a pot of vegetable soup they were cooking for a New Year’s Day celebration unattended on the stove, officials and relatives said.
Husband Napoleon Michael, 69, and wife Louise Jean-Charles, 59, who lived with their niece Nadia Donnay, 37, in the Lefrak City apartment where the fire broke out all perished in the blaze.
“It’s a terrible family tragedy,” said FDNY chief of department James Leonard. “It’s apparent there was some sort of cooking mishap that caused this terrible tragedy.”
The family prepared a vegetable soup every year to christen the new year, according to the couple’s daughter-in-law.
“It’s from our culture from Haiti,” said Emmanuelle Geffrard. “Every year for the new year, we make soup together.”
A fire began on the stove about 11:45 p.m. on Wednesday, and quickly ravaged the whole apartment. It went from the kitchen to the living room, and spread into the bathroom and back bedrooms.
About 150 firefighters worked for nearly two hours to beat back the flames in the ninth-floor apartment.
The thick smoke trapped two firefighters in a second-floor hallway, but they were rescued by colleagues after making a distress call, officials said.
Firefighters discovered the couple and their niece unresponsive and in cardiac arrest inside of the charred apartment.
One victim was wedged behind the door, while the other two were in the back rooms.
Jean-Charles and Donnay died at Elmhurst Hospital, while Michel died at the Forest Hills Long Island Jewish Hospital.
Donnay suffered from mental problems, and Jean-Charles began to look after her when her mother died, relatives added.
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