Overview
- The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, in Friday’s ruling, classified the deaths as homicides, prompting an NYPD investigation alongside fire and building officials.
- Police identified two victims as 3-year-old Sihan Yang and 50-year-old Chengri Cui, while the names of a 61-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man await family notification.
- The blaze tore through a three-story mixed-use building at College Point Boulevard and Avery Avenue on March 16, with people jumping from upper floors and a collapsed stairwell trapping firefighters.
- FDNY reported more than 230 responders and said it took just over two hours to control the fire, with four additional people taken to a hospital in stable condition.
- Investigators are examining the building’s long record of illegal conversions, a vacate order on the upper floors, reports of squatters and stolen electricity, and they have not yet determined the cause or made arrests.