Credit: Metro file photo
Two men are dead and a third person critically injured after two separate fires broke out in the side-by-side neighborhoods of Harlem and East Harlem early on Wednesday, police said.
Firefighters responded around 12:40 a.m. to the first fire, which was blazing in a Taft Houses apartment on Fifth Ave. in East Harlem. They found a 48-year-old man unconscious and unresponsive in the kitchen. He was later pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Later that morning, just after 6 a.m., another fire was reported in a third-floor apartment on Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Harlem. Two people were taken to Harlem Hospital, one of them a 68-year-old man, who was pronounced dead. The other victim was listed in stable condition.
The fire marshal is investigating the cause of both fires.
Follow Emily Johnson on Twitter @emilyjreports
