By Trevor Kapp, Theodore Parisienne and Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Staff
BROOKLYN — A teenager was killed in a fire at a Brighton Beach apartment building Friday as his younger brother cried out for him while being rescued by a local neighbor.
The male victim, 18, perished in the fire that broke about noon at 2847 Brighton Third St., the NYPD said. He was taken to Coney Island Hospital and pronounced dead, police said.
The man died despite the efforts of a local teen who rushed into the burning building to rescue the victim's 8-year-old brother.
Joe Izzo, 19, said he was walking home about noon Friday when he saw the building across from his apartment engulfed in flames.
As Izzo dialed 911, he saw flames shooting out of the two-story building's windows and panicked.
"I knew a little kid lived up there, and I wanted to get him out," Izzo told DNAinfo after the blaze.
"It was all smoke. I couldn't even breathe — forget about seeing," he added. "When I went up and got him, he said his older brother was still up there. But it was too much."
Izzo said he nearly fell down the stairs as he brought the young boy to safety.
"The little kid kept saying, 'My brother, my brother,'" Izzo said. "I told him, 'Just relax.' But the fire spread so fast, I couldn’t even do nothing."
Izzo, who was unhurt, said he brought the boy to a relative's home nearby.
Another woman, 61, suffered injuries in the blaze and was listed in stable condition at Coney Island Hospital, police added.
Dozens of firefighters responded to the scene and brought the fire under control by 12:51 p.m., FDNY officials said. One or two firefighters suffered minor injuries, the spokesman said.
Family and friends described the 18-year-old, a graduate of Lincoln High School and current freshman at Kingsborough Community College, as a popular guy who enjoyed soccer and dancing.
“He was a good boy. He loved to dance. He loved tropical music," said his uncle, Oscar Urquiza, 65, in Spanish, noting the teen's family moved to New York from Peru about four years ago. "He had a lot of friends. He was very popular.”
The teen's neighbor in the building, who was not inside when the blaze broke out, also decribed the 18-year-old as a good person.
“He was very calm, very friendly, very nice. The whole family is nice.” said Marco Albuerqueque, 45, “He would always say hello. He was a good student."
Olga Martynchuck, 39, who lives next-door to the burning building, said she smelled smoke from her kitchen about noon on Friday and then saw black plumes coming into her dining room.
"I started to cough [and thought], 'Oh my god, we can't stay,'" Martynchuck said.
She was able to get back into her apartment after the fire was extinguished, but said her roof was damaged.
Valerie Kopytina, 17, who lives in Martynchuck's building, said she was in the shower when her mother smelled smoke. Her mother looked out the back door and saw smoke and flames coming out of the first floor of the building next door, Kopytina said.
"I grabbed my dog and phone, and everybody ran outside," she explained. "I worried that the flames would go onto this side of the building."
The cause of the fire is under investigation, the FDNY said.
