Daughter claims NYPD left her mother to die in smoke filled high-rise hallway
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This story in the New York Post by Shawn Cohen and Chris Perez sure is different. Last Friday (January 12) there was a fire in an 11th-floor apartment of a 13-story building on Shore Front Parkway in Rockaway Beach, Queens. Officers from NYPD assisted in getting people from the building, some elderly and disabled. Police officers with smoke inhalation were among the 16 injured during the fire. One person died the next day from the smoke. That person was Ethel Davis.
The 91-year-old woman’s daughter, Marcia, believes her mom would still be alive if NYPD officers had let them shelter in place in the 12th floor apartment instead of carrying Ethel Davis into the hallway and leaving her there. Marcia Davis says one of the officers picked up her 160-pound mother despite her warning that they wouldn’t get far because of her mother’s weight. Marcia told the reporters she had trouble breathing herself in the thick smoke but stayed with her mom until she was wheeled out on a stretcher.
I encourage you to read the entire article, but here are a few excerpts:
“You gotta get the f–k outta here now!” one of the cops told Davis’ daughter, Marcia.
“But I’m safer with her here,” Marcia recalled saying. “She can’t stand; she can’t walk. She’s too heavy for you to carry her down. Please let her stay, please!”
Carrying Davis in his arms “like a baby,” Marcia said, the cop took her mom into the hall and dropped her on the floor.
The move was a direct violation of FDNY protocol — which instructs people to shelter in place when a blaze breaks out in a fireproof building. Tenants are also instructed to place wet towels at the base of their doors, to keep smoke from seeping in.
FDNY spokesman Jim Long told The Post that residents inside Davis’ building last Friday morning were told to remain in their apartments until firefighters arrived.
