Bronx Fire Kills Senior, Son Injured

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Published on April 30, 2013, 7:31 pm
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A massive early morning fire in the Bronx left an 84-year-old woman dead and the senior’s 45-year-old disabled son clinging to life Tuesday morning, officials said.

Firefighters said the blaze erupted inside the senior’s Ampere Avenue home in Pelham Bay at about 7:30 a.m.

Both she and her son were pulled from the fire and rushed to Jacobi Hospital, but doctors were unable to save the senior, who neighbors identified as Paula Aguilera.

Her son Michael remains in critical condition.

Neighbor Chris Marrero, 41, said he and two other men kicked in the door in an attempt to rescue the senior, but couldn’t get past the thick smoke and flames.

Paula Aguilera could be seen struggling by an upstairs window, Marrero said.

Marrero threw up wet dishrags to the senior so she could filter out the smoke until firefighters arrived and pulled her and her son out of the home.

Neighbors said Aguilera was a widow who took care of her deaf and disabled son.

The blaze was extinguished within an hour by 60 firefighters, an FDNY spokesman said. The cause of the blaze was still under investigation.

 

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Jonas Bronck is the pseudonym under which we publish and manage the content and operations of The Bronx Daily.™ | Bronx.com - the largest daily news publication in the borough of "the" Bronx with over 1.5 million annual readers. Publishing under the alias Jonas Bronck is our humble way of paying tribute to the person, whose name lives on in the name of our beloved borough.