By James DeWeese
Joyce Marasco, who neighbors said had lived quietly in the house at 85-33 98th St. for most of her life, was found unconscious when firefighters arrived. She was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 12:05 a.m., police said.
Marasco presumably died of smoke inhalation, but officials said it may take a week for the medical examiner to make a final determination.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries while battling the blaze that broke out sometime before 11:30 p.m. on the first floor of the two-story dwelling that sits on a quiet, one-way street adjacent to Forest Park, a Fire Department spokesman said.
The cause of the fire was still under investigation, but it appeared to have originated on the first floor, where there is a kitchen and a living room.
Next-door neighbor William Ortiz said two of his son's friends who were outside were the first to spot the blaze.
“Good thing they were out there – usually it's pretty quiet,” Ortiz, 53, said of the neighborhood.
The pair tried to smash the windows in the burning house to alert the occupants and shouted to get the attention of the neighbors, Ortiz said.
“We were in bed and we heard hollering,” said Ortiz's wife, Jeannie. “We thought it was a fight. (But) we came downstairs and we just saw the flames coming through the windows.”
Ortiz grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran to join his son's friends, he said. Ortiz emptied the contents of the extinguisher in the living room and managed to control the fire long enough for expectant mother Anastasia Alean to descend the stairs and escape.
Marasco and Alean were alone in the house at the time of the fire.
Alean and her husband had moved in with his parents, who lived on the second floor, just three weeks earlier to await the birth of her son, said Carmen Alean, 58, Alean's mother-in-law.
A Fire Department spokesman said the fire was called in at 11:31 p.m. Twelve fire units with 60 firefighters responded to the scene, and the blaze was declared under control by midnight, he said.
The two firefighters who were injured were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where they were admitted in stable condition, the Fire Department spokesman said.
The day after the fire, a hodgepodge of waterlogged personal effects – clothing, Christmas cards, books and post-office claim checks – lay strewn across the lawn alongside damaged furniture that had been removed as firefighters battled the blaze.
On Sunday, Carmen Alean and her husband, Oscar, returned to the house to sort through their belongings.
As tears welled up in her eyes, Alean, a city employee, said she and her husband had lived on the second floor of Marasco's home for 15 years.
She described Marasco as a quiet, independent woman who guarded her privacy zealously. Marasco grew up in the house with four siblings and raised a son there, Alean said.
John Pisano, a 74-year-old retiree who lives a few houses from the burned home, said Marasco had lived in the house alone since her son got married and her husband died.
“When it was warm, she used to sit on the stoop,” Pisano said. “She'd wait for her supper to come and then she went inside.”
Pisano said he often saw Marasco being picked up to go to work.
The Red Cross had arranged for the Aleans to stay in a hotel through Thursday.
“After that, I don't know,” said Carmen Alean, who lost her cat, Panchita, in the fire.
She said Panchita, an affectionate Spanish term for someone who is portly, had lived with them since shortly after they moved into the house.
Firefighters tried to resuscitate the cat, which later died. “She had a lot of smoke in her body,” Alean said of the family's feline companion.
On Sunday, more than 15 firefighters with two trucks and a command vehicle congregated at the house to review the fire. A firefighter who did not give his name said the injured firefighters were in stable condition.
Marasco's family could not be reached for comment. But Alean said they were concentrating fully on making funeral arrangements.
Reach reporter James DeWeese by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
