UNITED STATES - AUGUST 27: Firefighters stand in the rain at the scene of a fire at the corner of Walton and E. Mount Eden Aves. in the Bronx, where five firefighters were trapped in the basement when the roof of a building collapsed. The inferno, which began at the Mega 99 Cent store around 12:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, killed probationary Firefighter Michael Reilly, 25, and critically injured Lt. Howard Carpluk, a twice-decorated 20-year FDNY vet, after a huge air conditioning unit plunged through a burning roof and through the ground floor. (Photo by Debbie Egan-Chin/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
Photo: New York Daily News Archive/2006/Daily News, L.P. (New York)
Though New York City escaped the blizzard mostly unscathed, there was one storm-related casualty: 8-year-old Aschton Charles was asleep in his Flatbush home on Friday night when a space heater — the only source of warmth for the two-story building’s s eight residents — set fire to a couch. The blaze spread quickly, gutting the house and killing the boy. A neighbor described the horrible scene to the New York Daily News: “It was all white, I could not see anything. But you could smell the smoke. I then heard a piercing scream I will never forget.”
