Three people were burnt to death in a massive house fire that happened in a neighborhood of New York City and one of them was said to be a female high school senior.
According to NBC New York, the house on Washington Avenue in Garden City was already swamped in flames by the time firefighters had arrived at the scene. A village worker was the one who called 911 after he had witnessed the fire that gutted down the house on Thursday.
The fire crew arrived on the site at around 6 am and had found heavy smoke emanating from the upper part of the house. Three cars were found on the adjacent driveway. The crew became more anxious after a dog’s yelp was heard inside the Garden City estate.
"I didn't hear anyone," witness Joseph Morton said as he screamed and ran around the sides of the fence. He added that the smoke was so bad in the backyard of the house that he described the incident as a horrible experience.
ABC 7 New York reported that the people trapped inside the house were identified only as a 62-year-old man, a 60-year-old woman and an 18-year-old girl.
The first rescue officer who had tried to enter the burning house was said to have come across “intense heat and smoke” Nassau County Assistant Chief Fire Marshal Michael Uttaro said.
The neighbors confirmed that the two seniors were a couple and the girl was their daughter. The teen was described as a high school senior with big dreams. It was also found out she had just got accepted to New York University (NYU).
Kathy Ford, a neighbor, said that the daughter was a nice girl and a multifaceted student. "I believe she was going to study voice in college. She had just committed to NYU,” she added and implied that the family had their door decorated with the NYU colors.
Meanwhile, the possible root cause of the incident was not identified but everything is under investigation. Authorities suggested that they don’t have any suspected person as of the time and they could not validate if there were available smoke detectors in the house.
