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91-Year-Old Woman and Son Killed in Flatbush Fire, Police Say

By  Trevor Kapp and Aidan Gardiner | October 30, 2013 7:17am 

 Two people were killed and three others injured when a house caught fire Flatbush, officials said.
Two people were killed and three others injured when a house caught fire Flatbush, officials said.
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DNAinfo/Trevor Kapp

FLATBUSH — A 91-year-old woman and her 63-year-old son were killed in a huge fire in their Flatbush home early Wednesday, officials said.

Another three people were hurt in the fire that was sparked by a damaged space heater cord about 3:30 a.m. and quickly consumed the home on East 15th Street, blocks from Brooklyn College, the FDNY said.

"The downstairs door to the house was open, but it was all fire. I tried to kick the second floor door three or four times, but it wouldn’t open," said neighbor, Intazar Ali Dar, 55.

The woman, who neighbors said was a great-grandmother, died at the scene, the NYPD said. Her son, a church deacon and grandparent himself, was rushed to Kings County Hospital and pronounced dead, police and neighbors said.

"There was too much burns. His hand was burned. His feet were burned," Dar said.

"They put him on a stretcher. They tried to do chest compressions, but he wasn't moving. Then they took him away."

Three other residents were treated for their injuries, which were described as minor, at Maimonides Medical Center, officials said.

Their identities were not immediately released.

It took more than 100 firefighters an hour to finally bring the blaze under control. It devastated the home of the extended family that lived there, neighbors and the FDNY said.

People raced out of the house as flames and smoke poured from the windows and doors, witnesses said. Dar raced over to his neighbors' flaming home, hoping to help, he said.

"The fire was too high. My son said, ‘Dad, don’t go inside. There’s too much fire.’ I ran to the back," he said.

There, Dar saw another bloodied-man carrying out a baby and another woman who lived there, he said.

Neighbors said the mother and son, a former cab driver with a baby grandson, were deeply religious and major figures in their church community.

"She was always going to church with them," said neighbor Marie-Lordes Perrin. "They're good church-going people."

Her son was a deacon at the Haitian Ebenezer Baptist Church, according to neighbors.

"He was very religious," said 67-year-old Euvales Cineus, a longtime friend of the man. "He'd go on missions to the Dominican Republic and Haiti every year."

Dar said he had spoken to the man the afternoon before the fire.

"Everything was normal. We were talking about our families. He’s a great guy. The whole block likes him," Dar said.

"I just feel very bad."