Hell In The Hallway: Man Caught On Camera With Flaming Object Before Bronx Death-Trap Inferno Killed One Tenant And Sent Another Plunging Four Floors, Injured 10 More

A Bronx apartment building turned into a death trap Wednesday morning after a man was captured on Ring camera clutching a flaming object in the hallway, just before a two-alarm blaze ripped through the fourth floor, killing one tenant and sending another plunging from a window.

The fire exploded around 7:45 a.m. at 1484 Montgomery Ave. in Morris Heights, between West 174th and 175th streets. Flames tore through a six-story walk-up, spreading to an adjoining apartment, two units above, and the cockloft under the roof.

FDNY crews arrived to a nightmare scene: thick smoke pouring from upper floors, a 31-year-old man lying burned on the sidewalk after leaping from a fourth-floor window, and one unidentified man in his 40s found dead inside the apartment where the fire is believed to have started.

“He threw himself out the window,” neighbor Uneek Valentin, 46, told reporters after watching the desperate jump from her fifth-floor apartment.

The jumper was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center in critical but stable condition with burns and other injuries. Four firefighters and five other civilians also suffered injuries that officials described as non-life-threatening. About 140 firefighters and EMS personnel from 46 units battled the blaze, which was brought under control before 10 a.m.

Ring doorbell video obtained by 1010 WINS shows a man in a beanie walking the fourth-floor hallway holding what looks like a burning cardboard or paper box. Residents told reporters the man lived in the building and was the same person who later jumped. Some neighbors said they had previously raised complaints about him.“I’m above the guy who set the fire,” one woman told 1010 WINS. “I woke up to him screaming. He threw himself out the window. I ran to my kids’ room. When I opened the door, I saw all the smoke.”

Fire marshals have not officially determined the cause. Officials said they are investigating whether the man seen in the hallway footage started the fire. A vacate order was posted for dozens of apartments, leaving residents scrambling for shelter.FDNY Deputy Chief Andrew Holzmaier said crews made an aggressive interior attack, but the fire still spread rapidly, helped by open windows and doors that created a wind-driven effect.

The building has a history of tenant complaints, according to some residents and Council Member Pierina Sanchez, who said neighbors had even formed a tenant association over unresolved issues.

The dead man’s name has not been released. The 31-year-old jumper’s identity also remains withheld as investigators continue to piece together what happened in those final minutes before the hallway filled with smoke and flame.