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Residents Escape High-Rise Balcony Fire in Hell's Kitchen

By  William Mathis and Kathleen Culliton | June 1, 2016 2:51pm 

HELL'S KITCHEN — A fire broke out in a high rise on 10th Avenue Wednesday afternoon, cloaking the neighborhood's skyline in a thick cloud of black smoke, witnesses said.

The blaze erupted on an 11th-floor balcony at 747 10th Ave. near West 51st Street at 1:45 p.m., according to the FDNY.

“Within a minute, the whole sky was covered in black smoke,” said Mike Woolley, 36, who was standing on a roof across from the fire on West 52nd Street. “You could literally see the whole balcony was ablaze.”

The fire was extinguished by 2:45 p.m. and there were two minor civilian injuries, including the resident of the apartment where the fire started, according to an FDNY spokesman.  

Denis Andryukhin, 48, said the blaze started in his sister, Katherine Doumbia's, 11th-floor apartment while she was sleeping. 

"Luckily they knocked he door because when she sleeps she sleeps," Andryukhin said. "She's in shock she's trying to recover pictures and memories.”

Doumbia's face was covered with ash while she carried a smoke-stained air conditioner out her apartment. 

"I don't know how I will survive," Doumbia said. 

Leandro Goicuria, 36, lives on the 11th floor near Doumbia's apartment. When he heard the firefighters outside his apartment, he ran into the hallway and saw her escape from the smoke-filled apartment.

"The lady comes out with her hair smoking and black on her nose,” said Goicuria. “She looked around and when she saw the smoke she said, ‘Oh my God.’"

Goicuria fled the apartment building with his cat Dusty, whom he wrapped in his own shirt.

Dusty the Cat

Leandro Goicuria, 36, fled his 11th-floor apartment with his cat, Dusty. (Photo credit: DNAinfo/William Mathis)

Assistant Chief Michael Gala said the apartment was packed with furniture and debris, a condition firefighters call a Collyers' Mansion after a Harlem brownstone fire where Homer and Langley Collyer were found dead in 1947 amid tons of their own possessions.

"Our members had to fight through the clutter" said Gala, adding that the cause of the fire is currently under investigation. 

The windows were smashed in and a portion of the 38-story building's facade was scorched black. 

Jenna Geng, 31, was walking along West 52nd Street with her 2-year-old son when she looked up and saw the blaze.  

“It was big smoke, a big fire," said Geng. "The balcony was really bad with the smoke — I just hope there was no one in there.”