HAMILTON HEIGHTS — Residents scrambled out windows to escape an apartment fire that broke out in Harlem early Friday morning, sending eight people to the hospital, a witness and officials said.
The blaze erupted on the fourth floor of the six-story building at 565 W. 144th St. shortly after 3 a.m., with 60 firefighters responding to bring the fire under control about an hour later, the FDNY said.
Officials said eight people, including three firefighters, were brought to nearby hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries like smoke inhalation, bumps and bruises.
Joseph Robinson, 31, who lives on the second floor, said he saw two of his neighbors climbing out of a fourth-floor window onto a balcony about 10 feet below.
"A guy was yelling, 'Fire! Fire!' He was literally climbing down the windows in the yard," he said. "A woman was trying to follow him. He was yelling, 'Jump down! I'll catch you.' But she slipped and fell hard. It was a very, very big thump."
Robinson said he found a police officer to help him get his 98-year-old grandmother out of the building safely.
"Right now we're in a bad situation, but it could be worse," he said. "We just have flooding, slight damage, but we're all alive and well."
The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to the FDNY.
