Grim Discovery

Fire Victims Discovered a Week After Blaze

By David Greene

 

BRONX, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 17- Three victims killed after a fire tore through an abandoned home were discovered a week after the blaze when a contractor came to gut the home.

 

According to officials close to the investigation, the three victims were discovered at just after 9 a.m. on September 16, inside the burned-out 3-family home at 61 Buchanan Place in University Heights.

One fire department source stated that two victims had been discovered inside a second-floor living room and the third victim in a bathroom inside the home that was declared, "structurally unsound," before the September 9 fire.

 

All three were burned beyond recognition and the medical examiner will attempt to identify the trio through missing person reports and medical records.

 

Law enforcement officials believe the three victims were squatters who were living in the boarded-up home before the fire began.

 

An investigation into the origin of the fire was already underway. A second investigation is now underway to determine why the home wasn't properly searched.

 

One witness recalled, "The fire department put the fire out and left and the construction workers who were ripping down the building, found the bodies in the house."