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by DAVID J. EPSTEIN
A 63-year-old grandmother was killed when a two-alarm blaze ripped through her Queens home, authorities said yesterday.
Joyce Marasco was found unconscious in her first-floor apartment and rushed to Jamaica Hospital at 11:30 p.m. Friday, officials said. She was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.
"I just talked to her last night and told her that I loved her and would see her tomorrow," said her son, 41-year-old Mike Marasco, as he stared forlornly yesterday at the charred home on 98th St. in Woodhaven where his mother had lived since she was a child.
"She would give you everything she had, down to her last dollar," he said, struggling to hold back tears. "She would always give it to you."
The fire ignited at the two-family house and quickly consumed much of the first floor, slowing the progress of the almost 60 firefighters who responded to battle the blaze, FDNY officials said.
Two firefighters - one of whom jumped from the roof to escape a burst of flames - suffered minor injuries and were taken to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation, but fire marshals do not believe it is suspicious, officials said yesterday. The blaze was under control at 12:06 a.m. yesterday, an FDNY spokesman said.
Joyce Marasco was found trapped in her home's first-floor bathroom, where she had fled in an attempt to escape the flames, officials said.
An upstairs tenant - 24-year-old Anastasia Alean, who is pregnant - was treated at a local hospital for smoke inhalation, officials said. Firefighters also saved Alean's 15-year-old black cat, Pancha, which they found unconscious and pinned under a table.
"They gave it oxygen while a woman was holding it," said Jasmine Ortiz, 23, who lives on the block.
Joyce Marasco, a former bookkeeper for a local business, was remembered yesterday as a woman with a friendly smile who lived quietly, often passing her time watching old movies.
"I just remember how nice and hospitable she was when I started dating her sister," said her brother-in-law, 63-year-old Bob Carty, who said the whole family had spent Memorial Day weekend together on Long Island.
"She had a heart of gold," he said.
With Tom Raftery
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