Squadders were killed Tuesday morning when a fire broke out inside a Brooklyn building.
The victim was a woman in her 40s and almost 40s, and FDNY firefighters struggled to put out the “heavy fire” inside a “sealed” building at 1237 67th Street in Dyker Heights around 8am. He was later found dead in a burnt-out house. Fire Chief David Sims said at a press conference.
“The fact that the building burned out made it delay to put water on the fire,” Sims said.
The bodies of the squatter who built a makeshift home on the property were found in an alley behind the two-storey structure, Sims said.
“She had built a falsehood between the basement entrances, where she had crouched illegally, so there was an entrance on the cinder block so that she could enter the building,” he said.
No other injuries have been reported.
There have been five fires in the eight-bedroom home in the past two years, with at least one set by a former squatter charged with arson, according to past reports and Simms. He said the building is now “unstable” and is being taped.
The owner of the $1.1 million apartment complex said last year he has been suffering from illegal occupation for a long time after the building started a fire in April 2024.
“I go there every two or three weeks, but I don't approach,” MTA worker Zafar Iqbal said previously.
“I don't know if these people have weapons or not. My safety is also valuable.”
He lived in a part of the house in previous interviews, renting the rest of the day after buying it for $1.1 million in 2017, but moved with his tenants and with those plans. It was renovated to refurbish the wrench before the squatters could throw it.
After the latest Inferno on Tuesday, family members remained frustrated at the thought of “going here again,” a relative of Iqbal told the Post.
The cause of the fatal flame is under investigation.
