Firefighters Find 71-Year-Old Man Stabbed To Death While Battling Blaze

Members of the New York City Fire Department found a fatally injured 71-year-old man inside an apartment while they were trying to put out a residential blaze over the weekend, police said.

Firefighters had extinguished the flames of a blaze at a home on Manor Avenue in the Bronx at approximately 4:15 p.m. Sunday before discovering the unconscious elderly man, the New York Post reported, citing the New York Police Department.

The unresponsive man was found to have suffered three stab wounds to the neck and was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said. His name had been withheld pending the notification of his family.

At least 60 firefighters were involved in extinguishing the blaze for half an hour on the second floor of the home, New York Daily News reported.

Carol Li, a real estate agent, described the victim as a “calm man,” according to the outlet.

"He was quiet, a very quiet person," Li said of the victim, who had rented the second-floor unit of the house.

"I never heard arguing or fighting. He seemed like a gentle man. He was always out there [on his stoop] smoking cigarettes," another neighbor, Anthony Jenkins, said. "When I came out, they just said he was burned."

Authorities have made no arrests in connection to the man's death, as per the New York Daily News. No further details have been disclosed.

A 9-year-old boy from Queens was killed on the same day as the Bronx blaze after another fire raged through his home, where his family allegedly used to hold candlelit religious rituals.

Matthew Pichardo was found unconscious inside the multi-family home located along Hillmeyer Avenue in Far Rockaway at around 6:25 a.m. Sunday.

The boy and three other people were rushed to a hospital, but Pichardo later succumbed to his injuries. The other three, meanwhile, were reportedly in stable condition.

Neighbors blamed the fire on the family's religious rituals based on beliefs from the African Yoruba ethnic group, which involved the regular use of lit candles and animal sacrifices.

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