In a dilapidated Bronx home, a 38-year-old woman perished in a fire that started early Tuesday morning.
Authorities claim that at about two in the morning, the house on 212th Street caught fire. The roof burst into flames, and the windows were torn out.
Later on Tuesday afternoon, Tracey Ann Douglas was revealed as the victim.
Now, investigators are searching the burned-out house for the cause.
Neighbors jumped out of bed, fearing that the fire might spread as it tore through the houses.
“Very scary, never seen anything like this before. We were all ready to go, but the firemen did a great job of containing the fire,” a neighbour commented.
The victim’s nephews and their pals, judging from the surveillance footage, were seen frantically knocking on her door in an attempt to gain her attention and gain entry, but they were unsuccessful.
Douglas was taken from the house unconscious, and at Jacobi Hospital, he was later declared deceased.
The woman lived there with her mother, who died six years ago, and since then, as she struggled with grief, she was unable to pay the bills, according to her neighbours, who describe the situation as depressing.
“The mother died, and they left the house to the daughter, and the nephews and they live downstairs,” according to a neighbour. “They were merely residing there. Without heat, water, or electricity.”
The neighbours claim that Douglas’s noisy downstairs nephews and their violent dog were driving them crazy and that the house, yard, and bills had gotten out of control.
Some neighbours claimed they called 311 multiple times as the negligence grew more obvious, and some even volunteered to assist with cleaning up the property.
“I said if you need bags, whatever you want, I will give it to you, just to make the place look like somebody lives here, but it didn’t work,” Joyce Whyte, a neighbour, said.
The neighbours expressed their hope that someone would move into the house and take good care of it. The precise cause of the fire is still being looked into, but no additional injuries were reported.
There have been three or more casualties.