Two Fires Claim Four in New York City

NEW YORK --

An early morning fire killed three Guatemalan immigrant workers and seriously hurt two other people in a building where they rented rooms, authorities and neighbors said Saturday.

It took 60 firefighters about 40 minutes to get control of the blaze, on the top floor of a two-story building in Brooklyn.

Firefighters said four of the victims were found unconscious in one room and the fifth jumped from a window.

Fire marshals had not determined the cause.

The building was occupied by single young men from Guatemala who worked in construction and house painting, said Ahmed Tebet, who works at a grocery store next door.

"They all lived alone, and I don't know if they were legal immigrants," Tebet said.

The victims lived above a store in an ethnically mixed neighborhood. Many young Hispanic workers in the neighborhood work day jobs for meager pay and send money to families back home.

One person died en route to Staten Island University Hospital and a second died in the emergency room, said hospital spokesman Christian Preston. Police said another man was pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital.

Elsewhere in the city, an apartment fire in the Bronx killed a woman in her 70s, fire officials said. A 97-year-old woman was hospitalized in stable condition.

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