An 8-year-old girl was killed and two adults were seriously hurt in a Queens house fire caused by a lithium battery Saturday morning, officials said.
The blaze broke out on the third floor of a multi-family home on 130th Street in College Point at around 7:35 a.m., authorities said.
The child, Stephanie Villa Torres, suffered smoke inhalation and was pronounced dead at New York Presbyterian Hospital of Queens. The injured men, ages 18 and 35, were taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where they were listed in stable condition, according to authorities.
The fire was caused by a battery in an e-mobility device, the FDNY reported on Twitter.
“Per #FDNY Fire Marshals the cause of this morning’s fatal all-hands fire at 23-26 130 Street in Queens was accidental, caused by a lithium-ion battery from an e-mobility device,” the FDNY tweeted.
One neighbor came outside after hearing sirens, and saw firefighters performing CPR on the girl.
“After I saw that she’s gone, she’s dead, I walked back and I went straight to my three-year-old and five-year-old. I was crying,” the neighbor said.
Another resident of the burned building told The Post, “They’re investigating and that’s all we know,” before declining further comment.
Eduardo Benites, 48, who recently moved to 130th Street, said that around 7:45 in the morning, “I saw a lady calling to the people, saying, ‘Fire fire!’”
“We started hearing screaming and breaking glass,” he said, adding that he could smell smoke in his home.
“It’s pretty sad what happened,” he said. “I lived in Flushing many years, but never saw something like this. The house burning, nobody cares but when a girl dies, people care.”
At Jacobi Medical Center, family and friends turned out to support the injured men, whom they identified as Alfonso Villa and Jefferson Jimenez.
A weeping woman at Jacobi, identified by the family and friends as the mother of the dead girl, declined to comment, waving her hands and saying, “Not now.”
It took 60 firefighters about 45 minutes to get the fire under control, according to the FDNY.
