The body of a 21-year-old man was found in the wreckage of a Brooklyn blaze that also killed an FDNY firefighter on Sunday, officials said.
Carlos Richards, an autistic man who lived in the two-family home with his mother, was found dead late Sunday, according to local Council member Mercedes Narcisse. His mother, a registered nurse, was not at home during the fire.
Richards is the second person to die in the three-alarm fire, which also took the life of Timothy Klein, a six-year FDNY veteran. Eight other firefighters and one other civilian were injured in the blaze. All of them are expected to survive.
More than 100 firefighters were called to the scene on Sunday afternoon when the second floor of the two-story, stand-alone home collapsed, trapping a group of four firefighters, officials said. While the other firefighters leapt from windows or descended from ladders, Klein was unable to escape.
The firemen were running back and forth. I eventually saw someone bring someone out and they were doing CPR on the person. There was a lot of smoke and a lot of fire.
“The firemen were running back and forth. I eventually saw someone bring someone out and they were doing CPR on the person,” neighbor Euline Robin told Gothamist. “There was a lot of smoke and a lot of fire.”
The cause of the fire remains unknown, but Narcisse said that wind appeared to worsen the flames. The house sits on the edge of a creek that flows out of the Jamaica Bay.
Family members and neighbors were aware at the time that at least one resident of the building was unaccounted for, Robin said. The body was ultimately discovered on Sunday night, hours after Mayor Eric Adams and other city officials held a press conference to announce the firefighter’s death.
“New York City has lost one of its bravest today – Firefighter Timothy Klein,” Adams said. “He lost his life doing the job we asked of him every day – bravely fighting to save others from fire. We pray for his family and his fellow Firefighters during this terribly painful time.”
