{"id":545858,"date":"2026-01-27T02:47:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/545858\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T02:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:47:21","slug":"woman-killed-in-bronx-apartment-fire-helped-save-rest-of-family-relatives-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/545858\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman killed in Bronx apartment fire helped save rest of family, relatives say"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman killed in a Bronx apartment fire helped save the life of the rest of her family<\/a>, including her girlfriend who is now in critical condition, distraught relatives said Monday.<\/p>\n

The roaring blaze that tore through the University Heights building Sunday, killing 50-year-old Cynthia Ruiz Lara,<\/a> was sparked by an electrical wiring malfunction, Mayor Mamdani said a day later.<\/p>\n

Ruiz Lara lived in the apartment with her girlfriend of five years and the partner\u2019s three children, relatievs said.<\/p>\n

\"Cynthia<\/p>\n

GoFundMe<\/p>\n

Cynthia Ruiz Lara, 50, died after a fire tore through her apartment building near Grand Ave. and W. 183rd St. in the Bronx on Sunday. (GoFundMe)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trapped,\u201d Tasha Luciano, the daugher of Ruiz Lara\u2019s girlfirend, recounted in a GoFundMe she created to help her struggling family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all had to jump out the window to survive, but sadly my stepmother didn\u2019t make it. My mother has suffered severe 3rd degree burns all over her body and my brother is also hurt. I have swollen feet due to running through the snow to get to my mother. My mother is in critical condition and I would like to bring justice to my step mother \u2026 she risked her life to save ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blaze broke out inside the six-story building near Grand Ave. and W. 183rd St. in University Heights about 7:40 a.m. It took firefighters about 80 minutes to bring the blaze under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we have is gone,\u201d Luciano wrote on the GoFundMe. \u201cWe\u2019re quite literally homeless and have nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cynthia<\/p>\n

GoFundMe<\/p>\n

Cynthia Ruiz Lara, 50, died after a fire tore through her apartment building near Grand Ave. and W. 183rd St. in the Bronx on Sunday. (GoFundMe)<\/p>\n

Issac Lopez, 44, who lives in the building next door, saw Ruiz Lara\u2019s panicked girlfriend telling firefighters her partner was still inside the burning apartment.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe kept saying \u2018She\u2019s still inside, she\u2019s still inside. I gotta go back in!\u2019\u201d Lopez said. \u201cThey tried to calm her down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

People cry at the scene of a fatal fire on Grand Ave. and W. 183rd St. in the Bronx on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Lopez remembered Ruiz Lara as a \u201chardworking woman,\u201d an entrepreneur who would zip around the neighborhood on an electric bike dropping off homemade food.<\/p>\n

Ruiz Lara\u2019s brother, Andres Luiz, 56, said his sister\u2019s girlfriend\u2019s kids, who Ruiz Lara was helping to raise, are struggling to make sense of the tragedy as their mom fights to recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir mother is now in bad shape in the hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cBurns in the face, neck, leg, also arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cynthia<\/p>\n

Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Cynthia Lara died after a fire tore through her apartment building near Grand Ave. and W. 183rd St. in the Bronx on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Ruiz Lara\u2019s siblings, meanwhile, are shell shocked by her death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho would have imagined something like this happening? Not in a million years,\u201d Ruiz Lara\u2019s older sister, Jiny Ruiz, told the Daily News. \u201cSome things are out of your control.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman killed in a Bronx apartment fire helped save the life of the rest of her family,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":545859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,8471,2451,3059,5295,1370,728,405,403,5294,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5293,5321,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-545858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bronx","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-county","12":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-new-york-county","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkcity","21":"tag-ny","22":"tag-nyc","23":"tag-nyc-crime","24":"tag-sub-county-region","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115964781864997604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}