One Dead In Fire At Douglass Houses, Officials Say

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY – One man was killed after a fire erupted at the Frederick Douglass Houses on the Upper West Side on Thursday night, police said.

The man, 64-year-old Jeffrey Best, was a Douglass resident, the NYPD confirmed on Friday.

Douglass, a large New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) development on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, is a complex of nearly twenty buildings located between Amsterdam Avenue and Manhattan Avenue, and stretching from 100th Street to 104th Street.

The fire occurred at 850 Columbus Avenue between West 102nd and 103rd streets.

'It's Very Sad, But We're Fine'

A call was received at 9:15 p.m. on Thursday night, according to an FDNY spokesperson. Twenty units responded, amounting to about 78 fire and EMS personnel, according to officials.

The fire, which burned on the top floor of a nine-story building, wasn’t under control until almost 10 p.m., authorities said.

Mr. Best was critically injured in the blaze, police said, and was rushed to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital where he was pronounced deceased.

Two firefighters with minor injuries were also hospitalized, according to the FDNY.

The cause and origin of the fire remain under investigation, officials said.

“It’s very sad, but we’re fine” Carmen Quinones, longtime tenant association president at Douglass Houses, told Patch. “I got everybody in the building doing a wellness check.”

There have been no arrests in connection with the incident, according to an NYPD spokesperson, and an investigation is ongoing.