Upper East Side Blaze Injures Daughter of Charles Schwab, Two Others
Source Courtesy of The New York Post
An Upper East Side apartment fire burned and critically injured two people - including a daughter of financial-services magnate Charles Schwab - and sent a third person to the hospital with lesser burns early yesterday.
The blaze began sometime before 7:02 a.m., when a phone call alerted the Fire Department to smoke at 316 E. 77th St., a five-story brownstone apartment building, authorities said.
Sixty firefighters who responded found flames billowing in the first-floor, two-bedroom apartment occupied by Jason Underwood, his roommate of six months, John Strubing, and their friend Catherine Schwab, who was there after a night out with the men and other friends, officials said.
Firefighters had the blaze, which was contained within that apartment, under control by 7:28 a.m., but all three people inside went to hospitals with burns.
Catherine Schwab, 28, a San Francisco native, was listed in critical but stable condition with face and torso burns at the burn unit of New York Presbyterian Hospital, while Strubing, 28, was listed in critical condition there with similar injuries.
Underwood, 29, a financial worker, was listed in stable condition with hand burns at Bronx-Jacoby Medical Center, the hospital said.
Other tenants in the building, which is just a block away from a Charles Schwab office, were evacuated without injuries.
"I can't tell you how shocking this is," said Sandra Greer, the building's rental agent, who was distraught after visiting the scene. "I'm a parent, I'm a grandmother. I wouldn't want my kids to have anything like this."
Fire marshals were said to be eyeing the possibility that a stray ember had popped out of a fireplace. A department spokesman said that the apartment's smoke detector lacked batteries.
Charles Schwab, 66, chairman and founder of the self-named corporation that is among the largest U.S. financial-services companies, and his wife, Helen, could not be reached for comment.
"Obviously, they're focused on the well-being of their daughter," said Schwab spokesman Glen Mathison.
Additional reporting by Steve Hirsch and Dan Kadison
