An elderly woman known to neighbors as a “classic hoarder” was killed Monday night when flames engulfed her cluttered, “fire hazard” of a home in Queens, authorities said.
The widow, who lived by herself in a two-story 252nd Street home in Jamaica, was burned in the blaze that started at about 7:30 p.m., officials said.
FDNY Deputy Chief Steven Kubler acknowledged there was a “tremendous amount of clutter” in the home but stopped short of saying whether the pack-rat conditions caused the deadly blaze.
“She was a classic hoarder. I’ve been inside and I got scared. Just piles and piles of newspapers. The place was a fire hazard. It was just waiting to happen, and it happened,” said neighbor Abdeel Cyril, 44. “It’s just so sad she had to leave in this way.”