Jul 13, 2009 6:07 am US/Eastern
Fast-Moving House Fire Kills Two In Flatbush
BROOKLYN (CBS) ―
A deadly early morning fire in Brooklyn leaves residents trapped inside, calling for help. Neighbors tried to save them, but the flames were too intense.
Just before 5 a.m., neighbors awoke to the sound of glass shattering as the windows popped from the heat inside the burning home.
People driving by saw the flames engulfing the house on Avenue K and heard the people inside crying out for help.
"They were screaming, 'Lord please help me, Lord please help me,'" Anthony Deloid, a neighbor who tried to help, says. "It was him and a woman screaming."
A next door neighbor and people passing by did their best to rescue those trapped inside.
"Me and another guy kicked the door down and tell them to run out, the door is open, but nobody came out," neighbor Kissoondial Bissoondial says.
"I told them to jump, but they won't jump because there were two cars on the side. They had a chance to jump, but didn't jump," Deloid says.
Because of the flames, smoke and intense heat, rescuers were prevented from reaching the people inside who were so desperate to get out.
"'Help me, help me,' the lady was saying 'help me' and I lost her," Bissoondial says. "[Then] I couldn't hear her voice no more."
"When the guy went into the window, back in, about two minutes later the flames came out," witness Michael Rogers said. "We were like 'oh, man' – didn't see him again until they pulled him out."
Fire fighters arrived within minutes of being called, but by then it was too late for the people inside. The fire caused the 2nd floor and right side of the house to collapse, making their job even harder. Eight firefighters suffered minor injuries.
"The stairway collapsed leading up to the attic area," Assistant Fire Chief Thomas Galvin says. "The floors are in pretty poor shape. That's why we went to an exterior attack."
Sources say the fatal fire does not appear suspicious, though its cause is still under investigation.
The victims were identified as 45-year-old Lascelles Campbell and 35-year-old Nigel Rubin.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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