Fatal Crown Height Fire Takes Life Of Retired NYPD Officer: Report

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A fire in a Crown Heights building killed a retired NYPD Officer, according to reports.

Joseph Newkirk, 76, was found dead in his kitchen on the second floor of his apartment building by responding firefighters, according to the New York Daily News.

The fire broke out around 2 p.m. on Monday at 1760 Union St., according to the FDNY, a six-story, 60-unit building near Lincoln Terrace/Arthur S. Somers Park.

Despite smoke-eaters quenching the brutal blaze within 30 minutes, Newkirk was dead when firefighters found him, the Daily News reported.

Battalion Chief Tim Gimpel told Daily News reporters that the fire was "pretty intense."

Neighbor Paul Wilson, 65, told the Daily News that he ran out of the building with his 10-month-old stepdaughter.

“She was my first priority,” Wilson told Daily News reporters at the scene. “When I was standing [outside], I saw the fire coming from the window.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to the Daily News.

Read the story at the New York Daily News here.