A tragic pack rat yesterday died in a blaze that may have been sparked by a candle in her overstuffed Queens apartment, authorities said.
The 60-year-old woman was inside her trash-filled fifth-floor apartment at the Queens Ruskin complex at 66-33 Yellowstone Blvd. in Forest Hills when the fire broke out around 2:10 a.m., officials said.
Firefighters managed to get the blaze under control within 40 minutes while standing amid trash at least shin-deep across the floors and with clothes, newspapers and household garbage tossed in huge piles in other places.
But the woman died of smoke inhalation en route to North Shore Hospital in Flushing, officials said.
Neighbors said they had never even seen the woman, who had been living in the six-story brick building since 1976.
But she was known to building superintendents, who said they had to call in the city's Sanitation Department six months ago to haul hoards of trash from her apartment.
