Mom, son die in upper East Side fire
Sunday, August 10th 2008, 1:18 AM
An elderly woman and her son were killed and another person injured Saturday night in an upper East Side apartment fire, officials said.
The blaze, in a third floor apartment at 327 E. 93rd Street, was reported shortly after midnight.
Fire units responded within four minutes, officials said, but it was too late to save the two victims, whose identifies were not immediately released.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries, and the injured person refused medical treatment.
The fire was quickly brought under control and mostly contained to the one apartment in the five-story brick-and-brownstone building between First and Second Avenues.
That apartment was completely gutted, officials said.
Tenants said they smelled smoke and 15 minutes later saw it billowing out of the third floor window.
Dan Guertin, 35, who lives on the building's top floor, escaped by running to the roof and climbing to the adjacent building. "I was asleep," he said. "The fire engines woke me up. I looked out the kitchen and outside was full of smoke." Guertin said he would often see the man who died sitting outside smoking.
"He was a good guy," Guertin said.
The cause of the fire was still under investigation early Sunday morning, fire officials said.