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Ozone Park family killed in three-alarm house fire

By Alex Davidson

A mother, her two sons and a niece died early Wednesday morning in a raging three-alarm fire that gutted two homes in Ozone Park and injured six others fleeing the flames, fire officials said.

The blaze broke out at 3:10 a.m. Wednesday in the second floor of the two-family home at 95-17 77th St. in Ozone Park, fire officials said.

A woman and her two sons who lived in the upstairs apartment perished in the fire, along with the woman’s niece, who was staying with the family that night, a Fire Department spokesman said. The victims’ names and ages had not been released by authorities as of noon Wednesday.

“That was a real tragedy,” said Lena Siniscalchi, who lives across the street from the house.

Six other residents and about 10 firefighters sustained minor injuries, including broken bones and smoke inhalation, the FDNY spokesman said.

The deadly fire swept through the house at 95-17 77th St. very quickly and also claimed a neighboring house, fire officials said. Strong winds may have helped the fire spread and hindered the 138 firefighters responding to the three-alarm call, who brought the flames under control just before 5 a.m.

The niece had been dropped off at the apartment Tuesday night to stay with her cousins and her aunt, said Lucy Rodriguez, the girl’s step grandmother. The girl’s mother and the woman who died in the fire were twin sisters, Rodriguez said.

“It’s like everything is coming at the same time,” she said, referring to both the fire and her son’s decision to join the military.

The smell of smoke still lingered in the air late Wednesday morning as neighbors gathered to mourn the family killed in the fire and fire marshals began their investigation into the fire’s cause.

Among the residents injured was the couple who lived on the first floor of the house and a mother who broke her leg as she and her three children ran from their home, said Siniscalchi.

Davi Kalika, who lives two houses away, awoke to hear the wails of fire trucks, she said.

“I was crazy,” said Kalika, who has four children. “I was waking up my kids and telling them there’s a fire.”

Kalika said she conducts fire safety drills with her family because the densely populated block has been prone to fire. Three years ago there was a blaze in the same house that caught fire Wednesday morning, she said.

— Reporter Courtney Dentch contributed to this story.

Reach reporter Alex Davidson by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 1-718-229-0300, Ext. 156.