Brooklyn basement fire kills retired MTA worker neighbors tried to save
A 66-year-old retirement worker from MTA died after being trapped in a Brooklyn basement fire despite the best efforts of his neighbors to save him, the Daily News learned
Patrick Kirton could not escape the basement after the fire broke out in his family home on E. 40th St. near avenue I in Flatlands around 6:35 p.m. Wednesday, officials announced.
The neighbor Rodneil Harris rushed to help the Kirton family after Patrick’s wife called him, saying that Patrick was trapped in the basement.
“I went to the door and tried to open it, but he was locked,” said Harris. “Smoke hurt my eyes, so I ran out for a breath of fresh air. The two sons of my friend, they came, felt the smoke and the three of us have made our way down. ”
Harris and the two boys launched the basement of the basement but encountered intense smoke which forced them to withdraw outside.
“The room was completely dark and the smoke, it looked like a void,” said Harris.
The neighbor Portia Niles, 46, witnessed the brave attempt to rescue the neighbors.
“When they lowered the door, all the smoke appeared,” she said. “All three came to cough and choke. They could not go further. There was no way.”
She saw the first speakers then arrive and remove Kirton. About 60 firefighters and EMS members responded to the scene.
Kirton and an 86 -year -old woman were transported urgently to Kings County Hospital.
“He was certainly not aware,” said Niles. “I saw when they were doing RCRs in the ambulance. They did the pumping thing. “
“He was barely hung,” she added. “He was alive when he arrived at the hospital. They put him in the wear of the one.”
Kirton was in critical condition when he arrived at the hospital but died later from his injuries. The woman, who has undergone smoke, should recover.
The powerful fire blew the windows of the building, leaving scratches of glass on the floor.
The neighbors talked a lot about Kirton, who was barbados, and was devastated to learn his death, calling him “base” in the neighborhood.
Kirton retired from his work with the New York City Transit Authority a few years ago.
“I may have seen him a few days before the fire. He was just sitting in his car. Talking. I praised him and said hello. This is the last time I saw him,” said Harris. “He was a funny guy. We would be sitting here, let’s go and he would start making jokes.”
“We would always exchange stories from the city,” added Harris.
Harris remembered when Patrick frequently had days until retirement and was impatient to spend his new free time to travel and relax.
“Patrick was cool as cucumber, said Niles.” He is a father, a brother, an uncle. “”
Five other people at home were moved were moved by the fire, which was mastered around 7:19 p.m.
FDNY fire commissioners are still investigating the cause of the fire.
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