A fire in a Brooklyn rowhouse early Sunday morning left three people dead and 14 people injured, police officials said.
The fire, at 242 Albany Avenue between Sterling Place and Park Place in the Crown Heights neighborhood, was first reported on the ground floor of the building at around 4:30 a.m. When firefighters responded, they found all three floors ablaze.
By around 6:30 a.m., the fire was contained. An 81-year-old woman and two men, 58 and 31, were pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital, police officials said. At least one firefighter was taken to the hospital with serious injuries that fire officials said were not life-threatening, according to a Fire Department spokesman.
“It was a very difficult, dangerous fire operation,” said John Esposito, the chief of fire operations for the Fire Department.
It was not immediately clear what had started the fire. The Fire Department said on Sunday that fire marshals were investigating.