One dead, two injured in ‘suspicious’ fire in dilapidated Bronx rooming house

One person was killed and two others were injured in a Bronx fire at an illegally converted rooming house where tenants said they’d lived without heat.

The blaze broke out in the two-story house on Evergreen Ave. near Westchester Ave. in Soundview around 1:55 p.m. Sunday, fire officials said.

“On arrival, we had extensive fire on the first and second floors,” Deputy Chief James Donlevy said at a press conference.

FDNY officials deemed the fire “suspicious” due to the raging flames firefighters pulled up to.

“I was asleep I heard somebody yell and yell and yell,” Kye Wilson, who lived in the house, told the Daily News. “The smoke was thick. I ran out in my bra and underwear.”

People at a nearby restaurant gave the woman a coat and a pair of pants.

“I almost passed out from the thick smoke.”

Another tenant opened his door to black smoke and navigated his way out of the house, where he had lived for three years.

“I had to save myself,” said Ibraihima Magassouva. “A lot of people live here.”

Three people suffered smoke inhalation and burns. Two of them made it out on their own with minor injuries, Donlevy said.

The other person, however, was discovered by firefighters unconscious on the second floor. The individual died in the house.

The victim’s identity was not immediately released.

Over 100 firefighters worked to knock down the flames, which were under control by about 3:05 p.m.

Magassouva told The News the house had been a two-family building until the landlord split it into numerous rooms, with a bathroom on each floor.

“Everybody had their own heater,” said Magassouva. “Everybody worked. We pool our money.”

The building owner has been hit with numerous violations from the Department of Buildings, including for illegal occupancy and for failing to obey vacate orders, records show.

In 2018, an inspector visiting the house discovered the first and second floor had been converted into eight different rooms “to create single room occupancy.”

A vacate order was issued, but the next year another complaint was made, notifying the agency that people returned after the vacate order and “every room in the house” was rented.

Another vacate order was issued in 2021, but it apparently fell on deaf ears.

“There’s a lot of garbage in the back, 7 feet high,” said neighbor Yadalas Martinez. “The place was swarming with rats. There was a bad water leak for over one year. Nobody fixed it.”

“The guy was a slumlord and everybody was squatting,” Martinez added.

FDNY fire marshals were working to identify what sparked the blaze Sunday evening.