By Tuan Nguyen, Wil Cruz and Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Staff
QUEENS — Four firefighters were hurt Friday morning in a two-alarm blaze that consumed a South Jamaica home, officials said.
The fire broke out at 145-4 123rd Ave. in Rochdale Village just before 8:30 a.m. and quickly spread to 145-6 123rd Ave. next-door, FDNY officials and witnesses said.
It took 60 firefighters more than an hour to bring the blaze under control, by about 9:50 a.m., FDNY officials said.
"We managed to contain the fire to two houses," an FDNY deputy chief on the scene said. “The first house was fully burnt. The second was half-damaged.”
Four firefighters suffered minor injuries and were transported to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, an FDNY spokesman said.
The residents of the homes were able to get out and were not hurt, the FDNY deputy chief said.
Emafa Amegashie, 53, who lives in 145-4 123rd Ave., where the fire started, said she was about to leave for work Friday morning when she realized she forgot something.
"I came back to the kitchen when I saw all the smoke and fire coming out from the back of the house," said Amegashie, a daycare teacher who has lived there since 2003.
"I ran in and out screaming, 'Oh my God somebody help me' and didn't know what to do."
Amegashie, who was still distraught several hours later, said people on the street told her to call 911.
Although the firefighters came quickly, the hydrant at 145th Street and 123rd Avenue didn't work, so the firefighters had to go to a different block to get water, Amegashie said.
The Red Cross told Amegashie they would put her up in a hotel over the weekend but she would have to find a new place on Monday.
"Thank God it didn’t spread out," said Chrystal, 58, who didn't give her last name. She said her mother lived in a house near the fire on 145th Street.
"It's terrible."
The cause of the fire is under investigation, the FDNY said.
