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by Eyewitness News' Joe Torres
Ozone Park, Queens - WABC — A 13-year-old girl tried to get her parents out of their burning home--but all three died in the fire.
And now, investigators are looking into the possibility it was an illegally-subdivided apartment. Eyewitness News reporter Joe Torres joins us live from 114th street in Ozone Park.
Three people are dead; a teenage girl, and both of her parents. Two questions lingering in the minds of people here: Could this fire been prevented; and why was it in fact the victims could not escape?
Investigators are now checking to see if illegally-converted apartments in the house prevented people from getting out alive.
A deadly combination of choking black smoke and a fast-moving blaze took the lives of three people in Queens this morning in a two-alarm fire. The victims were 45-year-old Maladaye Ramkhalauran, 52-year-old Seepenrsaud Ramkhalauran and their daughter 13-year-old Sarah Ramkhalauran.
Miriam Ahmed, Neighbor: "I was looking out my back window, and it was 'Whoah, where did it come from?!'"
Marilyn Ambrose, Survivor: "I just picked up my phone and I called 911, and that was it, but the smoke came in the house very fast."
The fire broke out just before 7:00 a.m. at this two-story house. Investigators believe the teenager was sleeping on a couch when she noticed the fire. Sarah woke up her mother and father, and tried to get them out of their upstairs bedroom.
Investigators are also checking reports that the two-family home had been illegally converted into five separate apartments.
Deputy Chief Jim Didomenico, FDNY: "The first engine company 308 that got to the top of the stairs were met with heavy fire right at the top of the stairs. You could not get past the wall of fire until they knocked the fire down, so it was very intense, very heavy smoke, very heavy fire on arrival."
Investigators say candles in the living room may have sparked the accidental fire. Mr. Ramkhalauran emigrated from Trinidad more than two decades ago. He worked as a janitor at a Manhattan high school; he and his wife were about to celebrate their silver anniversary.
Neighbor: "It was very sad to hear that. It could have happened to any one of us."
For more than an hour now, workers from the city's Department of Buildings have been here at the house, sealing it up as well as boarding up all of the windows. All of this is happening as distraught family members come up the sidewalk, to look at the house and pay their respects, the tragedy of this hitting them now.
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