2-Year-Old Dies In Sunnyside Fire
BY DAN MILLER

Photo Dan Miller/DMD Images Jacqueline Ospina-Lopez sifts through charred remains of personal belongings that were tossed from the windows of her third-floor apartment in Sunnyside by firefighters battling the blaze that killed one of her six children and sent two others and four adults, including a firefighter, to local hospitals.

A fire in an apartment at 47-26 49th St., Sunnyside last Thursday took the life of a two-year-old child and injured four adults, including one firefighter.

On August 9, 59-year-old Carmen Ospina was babysitting four of her six grandchildren while the children' s mother, Jacqueline Ospina-Lopez, 28, went on several errands. At about 7:30 p.m., a child playing with a lighter is alleged to have caused what turned out to be a fast-moving fire that spread through the third-floor apartment in the fivestory brick apartment building in which the family lived.

With flames in her hair, Ospina ran to a window and shouted, "Fuego, fuego (fire, fire)." She quickly grabbed oneyear old twins Alec and Ana Beliz and six-year-old Isiah and passed each child to firefighters, who carried them and the shaken grandmother to safety.

Firefighters were on the scene within minutes and had the fire under control in less than an hour. However, the smoke was so thick and the fire moved so quickly that there was no time to save twoyear old Carlos Joel, who was in a top bunk in a back bedroom. C.J., as he was called, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ospina-Lopez returned to the apartment building to find firefighters and fire trucks on the street. When she was told that Carlos Joel could not be saved, she collapsed on the street.

Fire officials indicated that the fire was apparently an accident. Neighbors said the fire was sparked by one of the small children playing with a lighter, and according to some news stories, the oldest child confessed that he had indeed started the fire while playing with his mother's lighter.

Three adult civilians and one firefighter, and two of the children from the burning apartment were taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center for treatment and observation. Quick action by firefighters, police and concerned neighbors contributed to the low number of casualties.

The following day, family and friends helped Ospina-Lopez to collect many of her family's personal possessions that had been tossed from apartment windows into the building's courtyard. A family friend and godmother to the deceased two-year-old Carlos Joel told the Gazette that two other children were away camping and did not know about the fire.