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Two Seriously Hurt as Blaze Engulfs Bronx Home

By  Heather Holland and Julie  Shapiro | May 31, 2013 12:28pm | Updated on May 31, 2013 7:29pm

 The fire broke out in a three-story home at 823 E. 219th St. Friday morning, the FDNY said.
Bronx fire
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WILLIAMSBRIDGE — A Bronx home ignited Friday morning, sending members of an extended family scrambling to safety and leaving two of them seriously hurt, officials and relatives said.

The blaze started just before 10:45 a.m. in a three-story home at 823 E. 219th St., between Bronxwood and Barnes avenues, the FDNY said.

John McFadzean, 51, was trapped inside the burning house and suffered critical injuries, while his relative Rafael Garcia, 23, was able to escape by jumping from a third-floor window onto an awning and suffered serious injuries, officials and family members said.

Both victims were rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, authorities said.

Chanel McFadzean, 28, John McFadzean's niece, said her uncle had second-degree burns on 60 percent of his body.

"He's burned pretty bad and might not make it," Chanel McFadzean said.

Sixty firefighters responded and brought the blaze, which spread to the first and second floors of the home, under control by 11:10 a.m.

Chanel McFadzean, who was working in SoHo when neighbors called to inform her of the blaze, said an air-conditioning unit in the rear of the first floor sparked the fire.

The FDNY said the cause of the fire was under investigation.

One of McFadzean's cousins, who was on the first floor when the blaze broke out, was able to run upstairs to rescue her grandmother and 2-year-old daughter from the burning home, McFadzean said.

"It could have been a lot worse," McFadzean said. "It's OK, I just need to keep my family together."