An elderly Brooklyn woman died in a fast-moving, two-alarm blaze early Monday. The fire broke out about 4:35am in a deli on the ground floor of the apartment building on Franklin Ave. in Crown Heights, officials said.
Olga Bates, 91, a retired cafeteria worker, was found unconscious on the second floor after firefighters extinguished the fire, relatives and officials said.
She was rushed to Interfaith Medical Center, where she died.
“She was a religious, kind woman,” said her heartbroken niece Loretta Hall, 67. “She had all her faculties about her. She was very independent, very strong - stronger than me.”
Neighbors mourned the loss as well.
“I miss her already,” said Gale Scott, 41, who lives across the hall from the victim.
“She was sweet, beautiful. Whatever you needed, she would do.”
Scott ushered neighbors, including Katie VanSpeybroeck, 30, out her window and onto her fire escape to safety.
“We all shoved ourselves on this one fire escape. It was really scary,” said VanSpeybroeck, who was able to carry out her 8-year-old cat.
“I’m so grateful we woke up in time,” she added.
The fire started in the recently-renovated Organic Deli Grocery on the ground floor of the four-story brick apartment building. Dazed owner Emad Alharir walked amidst broken glass outside the store Monday morning.
“He’s just in shock,” said a friend of the deli owner.
“We just don’t know how it started. He’s so confused to see it all.”
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