NEW YORK --
A grandmother carted three children to safety as flames raced through their apartment, but a fourth died after she was unable to rescue him, authorities and witnesses said.
"She kept saying, 'There's another one missing,"' said Debbie Garcia, 33, a neighbor and family friend. "She said, 'I barely have two hands to carry only three."
The grandmother, who wasn't identified, was watching the children at their Queens apartment Thursday evening after their mother went out to bring her husband something he had forgotten to take to work, said family friend Jessica Solorzano, 31.
The fire sent smoke coursing through the 5-story building on 49th Street in the Sunnyside neighborhood shortly after 7 p.m. Resident Fabiana Abru, 17, said she saw smoke slipping through her door, though the blaze was two floors below.
As residents fled, the grandmother wasn't able to reach a toddler on the top level of a bunk bed, Solorzano said.
Two-year-old Carlos Ospina died at the scene, police said. Family friends said he was known as C.J.
"He was very playful. He was just a happy kid," neighbor Ashley Paulino said.
Two children and four adults, including a firefighter, were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, firefighters said. No update on their condition was available early Friday. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.
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