WEST VILLAGE — A candle sparked a fire inside a residential building on Bleecker Street Thursday morning, injuring a woman who tried to battle the blaze herself, authorities and witnesses said.
Firefighters received a call at 8:38 a.m. about the fire, which started inside a kitchen on the third floor of the building, located at the corner of Carmine Street, an FDNY chief at the scene said.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control by 9:01 a.m.
The 40-year-old tenant whose apartment the blaze broke out in was disoriented due to smoke inhalation and taken to Beth Israel Hospital, fire sources said.
FDNY Battalion Chief Jim Tracy said the fire started when candle set a cabinet in the apartment ablaze.
Witnesses said they saw the woman trying to fight the fire herself after they smelled smoke throughout the six-story building.
“The door was open and you could see the flames,” said fifth-floor tenant Jane Humphreys, 24, who saw the woman trying to beat the blaze back with a towel. “She wouldn’t leave.”
Humphreys and her boyfriend, Alec Raggio, called 911 and were eventually able to convince the woman to leave the building.
“The towel she was using to put it out was on fire,” said Raggio, 24.
The building's owner, Donato Di Saverio, said there was no structural damage to the 112-year-old landmark building as a result of the blaze. He added that a the restaurant located on the ground floor suffered some water damage.
