WILLIAMSBURG — The brother of a woman who perished in a terrible blaze on Conselyea Street Friday night said his sister is leaving behind a tremendous hole in the family.
Ellen Luckey, 58, was the eldest in a family of seven children, and had two daughters as well. She lived alone in her 147 Conselyea Street third-floor apartment, her brother, John Luckey said. Neighbors said she'd lived there nearly 15 years.
John Luckey, who lives in Queens, sounded shell-shocked Sunday morning when he spoke to DNAinfo.com New York, just after identifying his sister's remains at the morgue.
"She came from a big family, seven of us all together," he said. "She was the oldest," and a pivotal person to everyone, he said.
"Everyone's stunned," he added.
Ellen Luckey had worked as a purchasing agent for a Queens-based liquor supplier, out of their Greenpoint offices, according to her Linked In profile and calls to the company.
The fire broke out at 9:15 p.m., the FDNY said, and took nearly three hours to put under control. It was so fierce, officials said, that the firefighters were ordered to move the efforts towards the outside of the building to protect them from further danger.
Luckey said the fire department had told him also that "the fire started in the bedroom, they found her in one of the other rooms."
One of Ellen's favorite things, Luckey said, was being with close family.
"She liked to spend time with her grandchildren," he said.
The woman's two daughters, who live out of the area, have three granddaughters between them, he said. His nieces were on their way into the city Sunday morning.
