Elderly Queens Woman Dies in Apartment Fire, Fourth Fatality in One Week

On November 12, 2025, a deadly fire erupted in a sixth-floor apartment at the Queensbridge South Houses in Queens, New York, resulting in the death of an 86-year-old woman. This tragic incident occurred just after 2:15 a.m. and was the fourth fatal fire to strike the city in the past week.

Neighbors were awakened by choking smoke and the sound of firefighters banging on doors, urging them to evacuate. One resident, Tyrelle Washington, 24, lived next door to the senior's apartment and witnessed the aftermath. He described seeing the elderly woman, a longtime Dominican tenant who only spoke Spanish, being carried out on a stretcher with extensive burns to her arms and legs. Tragically, she was unresponsive and later died at Mount Sinai Queens hospital.

Residents remembered the victim as a sociable, active woman who would play cards and bingo with other seniors in a nearby park. "She didn't smoke, she didn't drink. She used to play bingo with the old ladies in the park in the summer," recalled one 72-year-old tenant, Cesar. The fire was extinguished within half an hour, but the senior's apartment was left in a state of devastation.

This latest tragedy comes on the heels of three other fatal fires that have rocked New York City in the past week, claiming the lives of an 88-year-old man in the Bronx, a 74-year-old woman on the Upper East Side, and an 89-year-old man in Queens.