Nine people were injured, one critically, after a house fire raged out of control and spread to a neighboring property in Queens Monday night, according to the FDNY.
The blaze erupted inside a home on Dongan Ave. near Broadway in Elmhurst around 6:44 p.m., firefighters said.
That building collapsed, but not before the fire spread to a neighboring home, which was also gutted in the blaze.
More than 230 firefighters and paramedics were dispatched as the inferno grew into a four-alarm fire.
Nine people were rushed to the hospital, including one in critical condition, another with a serious injury and seven with minor injuries, including two firefighters, according to an FDNY spokesperson.
“It was all smoke and flame,” said Subash Gurung, 45, who lives next door to the building that caught fire. “I couldn’t get any closer. It was too much.”
Multiple neighbors said the home where the fire ignited was subdivided. Olga Jimenez, whose parents live inside the property, said there were “many” families living there.
“I saw one lady with a newborn girl, a baby, they live on the left side in the last room in the basement,” said Jimenez, 60, who was inside the building when the fire spread. “We called to her, ‘Fire, fire, time to get out.’ She said, ‘Ok, ok,’ but that’s the last we heard. We’re still trying to find her and her baby girl.
“Thank god my parents and I are ok.”