‘I thank God I’m still alive.’ 2 hospitalized after fire at Bed-Stuy senior living facility

Two people were hospitalized after a fire broke out Saturday afternoon in a first floor apartment at the Stuyvesant Gardens senior living facility in Bed-Stuy.

Fire officials say the fire at 159 Malcolm X Blvd. broke out around 1:30 p.m.

“When I get up and look outside, I see all the water coming in and I was scared,” said Norma Samuels, a resident of the first floor who was taking a nap when the fire happened.

While some residents live with younger family members, others live alone. Many of them reached out to family, including Sharon Curry, who said she was out shopping when her mother, “called me and said she was stuck inside and there was a lot of smoke.”

Other first floor tenants, like Cashema, who is younger, but had moved in to the building with her late grandmother several years ago, were out at the time.

She says after getting a text about the fire, she dropped everything.

“On my way home from work, I literally almost had a panic attack because what’s going through my mind is, ‘oh my God,’ I lost my whole apartment.”

Fire fighters say they found two people inside the apartment where the fire started, and that one was unconscious.

They say, however, the person re-gained consciousness on the way to the hospital. Both people are expected to be OK.

As for their apartment, Cashema says she heard “it was is torn up.”

The FDNY says the flames were contained to that one unit and nobody else was hurt.

“(My mother) had gone in her bedroom, put on a mask, and she couldn’t open a window but, she was safe in her bedroom,” Curry said.

“I thank God I’m still alive,” Samuels said.

The biggest issue for many of the tenants was the fact that the sprinkler outside the apartment where the fire started stayed on and flooded the hallway.

While some tenants were unable to wade through it and get back to their apartments, others, like Curry’s mother, were stuck inside.

“She can’t walk really,” Curry said. “But she was comforted I stayed with her on the phone, and stuck with her that way, and she seems to be OK.”

Samuels also has a hard time moving around, but seemed to be taking things in stride.

“This is the first time I’ve beenin this situation so, I’m having a cup of tea and, I’m taking it easy,” she said.

Sources with the building say that while the water did stay on for hours, everyone was eventually able to get back into their rooms.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known as of Saturday night.