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NEW YORK (AP) Five people trapped in a burning apartment, screaming for help and trying to clamber out windows, were saved after firefighters scaled ladders and struggled through smoke and flames to get to them, firefighters and the victims said.
"I thought we were going to die," victim Charlene Southerland, 48, said after the blaze Monday morning in the East Harlem apartment. "It was horrific."
The blaze, apparently ignited by faulty Christmas tree lights, tore through the third-floor apartment on East 102nd Street around 4 a.m. The living room was filled with flames and thick smoke when firefighters arrived, "and we could hear people yelling for help and moaning," Fire Department Lt. Gregory Prial said.
Southerland said she was forced back into her bedroom after opening the door to a wall of smoke and fire. She and Al Power, 44, called for aid from the window.
Southerland's 26-year-old daughter, Shakira Southerland, her sister Taccara Taylor, 24, and a boyfriend of one of the sisters were striving to get to windows in other rooms, the family said.
Firefighters used a ladder to rescue some of the victims from windows, while pulling others out through the burning living room.
Taylor was in critical condition later Monday at NewYork-Prebyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center. An update on her condition was not immediately available early Tuesday.
The other victims also were taken to hospitals, but their injuries were less serious.
The Christmas Eve blaze destroyed the holiday presents Shakira Southerland, who is training to become a carpenter, had bought for her two children by walking to her technical school and saving her bus fare for months, she said.
"She told them Santa was going to get them everything they wanted," said Power, the children's grandfather.
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