NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — A 49-year-old woman is dead, two men are in the hospital, and several others are displaced after an early morning fire at a multi-family home on Saltonstall Avenue in New Haven.
“I was getting up to go to work and I just like hear stuff falling out, stuff cracking, so I look outside and see stuff falling on fire. I see big flames coming out so I just ran out of the house and got everybody up,” said Julio Ruiz, who was displaced with the rest of his family. They lived on the first floor.
New Haven Fire Chief John Alston said in total, 11 people were displaced after the fire broke out around 1:30 a.m.
The building is a three-and-a-half story multi-family home, with a room and attic attached to the third floor.
“Members arrived, found heavy flames and smoke on the upper levels, began affecting rescues,” said Chief Alston.
“It’s very unfortunate, but by the prompt action of FD and the station being so close, it was really a great stop keeping that fire at that apartment of origin which was the fourth-floor attic,” said Douglas Wardlaw, Acting Supervisor of Fire Investigation in New Haven.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and the victims’ identities have not been released.