Bronx Blaze Kills College Provost

April 26, 2005 -- A former Manhattan College provost died yesterday despite the rescue efforts of firefighters and medics responding to a three-alarm blaze in The Bronx.

Firefighters pulled Walter Emge, 69, out of the inferno at 5956 Delafield Ave. in Riverdale at 1:30 p.m., and medics rushed him to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, but he was pronounced dead 15 minutes later.

Firefighters had found an unconscious Emge in his bedroom, police sources said.

Emge, who served as provost from 1985 to 1996, taught philosophy and ethics at the Riverdale school. He never married and lived by himself for fifteen years in the Delafield Avenue home, a neighbor said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.