New York Daily News
(TNS)
A disabled girl in a wheelchair was killed the day before her 13th birthday when a fire tore through her family’s Bronx home, her devastated mother told the Daily News.
Skyler Michilin spent her final hours eating her favorite snack, french fries, and getting excited for the upcoming holiday season.
“Today is her birthday, her 13th birthday,” her mom Rosemarie Thompson said Sunday. “She was a happy, jovial girl. She loved music. She loved Christmas. She started playing Christmas songs.”
A blaze broke out in Skyler’s room in the family’s two-story home on Boyd Ave. near Bussing Ave. in Wakefield just before 4:20 p.m. Saturday, cops and Thompson said.
As the flames and smoke engulfed the home, Skyler’s 7-year-old brother called their mother in a panic.
“My little boy calls me on FaceTime and says, ‘Mommy, the house is on fire, Skyler is burning up,'” Thompson recounted. “And he was running, he heard Skyler calling out and crying. He couldn’t go up.
“No one was up there with her, it was engulfed with flames so it was hard to get there,” the grieving mother said of the horrific scene.
Seventy firefighters rushed to the tree-lined street and brought the blaze under control by 5 p.m. Skyler died at the scene.
“She gets up early and goes to school. She’s happy,” Skyler’s mom said. “She loves Jamaican ginger beer. She would drink that and play with her iPad.”
The girl loved listening to parody artist Bart Baker and pop superstar Taylor Swift.
“She loved french fries. I got her some McDonald’s french fries around 12 (p.m.) yesterday,” Thompson said. “It was like a treat.”
Thompson planned not to hold a birthday party at school like the family usually did and instead throw a bash at home as Skyler entered into her teen years.
“It was supposed to be at the house,” Thompson said. “Everyone, family was supposed to travel from Connecticut to welcome her into her teens. I was going to get a cake, cook and just have a good time.”
Neighbors also mourned the girl.
“I would see her coming and going to school and getting on the bus. When I seen her, she was always smiling,” said John Swaby, 68. “It’s sad to see the young girl gone. She hasn’t even started life yet. It’s devastating.”
Skyler’s brother was also injured in the blaze and taken to Jacobi Medical Center. Another injured person was treated at the scene, cops said.
An FDNY spokesman said the cause of the blaze remains under investigation.
“I heard some yelling outside the house and that’s when I came out the front door and saw some smoke coming out at the top of the house on the second floor. And not too long after that, the firetrucks pulled up,” said one neighbor, who didn’t give her name. “My prayers are with the family … It’s a heartbreaking situation.”
Another neighbor, Oma Baldeo, 41, said firefighters responded quickly.
“There was smoke coming through the windows from the upstairs level,” she said. “A neighbor went in to try and help but it was too much smoke … The family was outside on the sidewalk and it was just a sad scene.
“I have never seen anything like this on the block,” he added. “It’s so tragic.”
©2023 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
nj.com
(TNS)
Authorities have identified the man killed in a fire in a multi-family house Friday in Garwood as a 71-year-old resident of the first-floor apartment.
Charles Riordon was found dead inside the apartment on the 100 block of North Avenue, Garwood police said.
The fire, which broke out shortly before 5 p.m. on the first floor, took several hours for firefighters from several towns to extinguish, police said.
Firefighters entered the home through the back and were able to prevent it from spreading past the first floor, Chief John Scalzadonna said in a statement
No one else was injured.
The fire is not considered suspicious, through it remains under investigation.
“Garwood Fire Department reminds residents about the importance of having properly working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors working throughout their homes,” the fire department said in a statement.
©2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
