Fire Destroys House, Displaces 28

Smoke detectors awoke Luis DeJesus from a nap Friday afternoon.

He rushed to the kitchen, figuring the stove had caught fire. It hadn’t.

Then he looked out back.

“Smoke was coming up the back door.” So he scooped up his 4‑year-old daughter Jarielez, who was playing with a tablet in another room, and started running out the front.

He and Jarielez joined 26 others who lost their homes Friday when a fire destroyed a three-family house at 1569 – 71 Ella Grasso Ave., at the corner of Anita Street, and damaged the house beside it.

The two-alarm fire started at 1:57 p.m. apparently when a couch on an exterior first-floor deck went up in flames.

It took 36 firefighters about an hour to put it out.

All 28 tenants of the two buildings got out safely. One firefighter, Lt. Leonard Wishart, broke his finger while ​“advancing a hose,” according to Assistant Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli. Half the displaced tenants are adults, half children.

Twenty-seven homes in the neighborhood temporarily lost electricity when the fire department requested the United Illuminating shut off the power.

The fire coincidentally occurred down the block from the house where pit bulls mauled a woman earlier this week.

Fire Marshal Bobby Doyle said at the scene that it appears that 1569 – 71 Grasso will not be inhabitable again. The other house had ​“cosmetic” damage; tenants should eventually be able to move back in.

The landlord of 1569 – 71, Mendy Katz, rushed to the scene of the fire. He said later that he has arranged for his building’s tenants to stay in a hotel for the weekend. He said he plans to help them find new apartments on Monday. Doyle said the Red Cross will help find temporary lodgings for the other tenants.

Officials said an investigation of the fire has begun. ​“We’re looking at all the angles,” said Marcarelli.