By Sonja Sharp and Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo Staff
HARLEM — A fire broke out in the kitchen on the fifth floor of an apartment building on 141st Street on Monday evening, FDNY officials said. It forced several famlies onto the street, including a woman, nine months pregnant, who climbed down the fire escape when the blaze began.
Roughly 60 firefighters responded to the 5:36 p.m. call at 117 W. 141st St., between Lenox Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, the FDNY said. Families were allowed to return to the building around 7:30 p.m.
"It's a kitchen fire," said Deputy Chief James J. Nichols of Division 6. "We think it's careless cooking." Fire officials were also investigating the possibility of an electrical fire.
A woman who lives in the apartment where the blaze started said the family was not cooking at the time.
"We smelled the fire and we left," Binta Ngom, 37, originally from Senegal, said through a translater.
Ngom, who is nine months pregnant, left the burning apartment by climbing down the building's fire escape, she said.
A man with a heart condition unrelated to the fire was taken to an area hospital, fire officials said. A police officer was treated for cutting her head at the scene.
"We looked out the door and we saw black smoke rolling down the hallway," said Rick Smith, 50, who lives on the sixth floor of the building.
He said it was the third fire in three years. He claimed that another was caused by cooking and one was sparked by a scarf on a radiator.
"I don't even wait a minute to get out," said Donna Hall, a resident who left the building with her three children and nephew as soon as alarms went off.
