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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, F 26 FEBRUARY 18-24, 2022 BTR
Twin Parks tenant revisits
rescuing 3-year-old from inferno
BY JASON COHEN
When the fi re broke out at Twin
Parks North West last month, one
tenant there went above and beyond
to put a child’s safety before his own.
The Jan. 9 blaze, believed to have
been started by a faulty space heater,
is the worst fi re in the borough since
the Happy Land social club arson
fi re in 1990, which claimed 87 lives.
Seventeen people were killed in the
Twin Parks fi re, including eight
children. Since tragedy struck, there
have been four separate lawsuits
fi led against the property owners
and the city.
The morning of the fi re began as
any other day with the fi re alarm
blaring loudly. Building resident
Mahamed Keita told the Bronx
Times that it was a common occurrence
for about 10 minutes every day
until it was turned off. So, when he
heard it on Jan. 9, he thought nothing
of it and just went back to sleep.
Keita, 26, a substitute teacher at
Bronx International High School,
who lived on the 16th fl oor of the
Fordham Heights apartment building
since December 2020, said about
fi ve to 10 minutes later he began to
feel heavy smoke in his room. He
then rushed to the kitchen to see if
there was a fi re and when he opened
the door to the hallway smoke was
everywhere.
He then got his jacket and proceeded
to make his way downstairs.
“When I got out to the 16th fl oor, I
just saw smoke,” he said. “I had to get
out. I covered my nose and I started
running around. I couldn’t see anything.”
As he was walking down the
smoke-fi lled stairs Keita bumped
into a lady with two kids on the 12th
fl oor who was asking for help.
“I give her my hand and she gives
me her 3-year-old daughter and I
cover her nose as they follow me
down,” he said. “I didn’t even hesitate.
I knew I had to step up and
help.”
With his jacket covering her face,
he carried the little girl down the
smoked fi lled stairs, all while exposing
himself to the toxins. At one
point, he lost the mother and her
other child, and feared the worst.
Keita, who said he had walked the
16 fl ights before because the elevators
often didn’t work, knew his way
down. However, he had never done it
without being able to see. That was
one of the scariest moments of his
life, Keita told the Bronx Times.
“I never knew if I was going to
make it through,” he said. “When I
fi rst started going towards the lobby
no one knew where the fi re was.
I heard a lot of people screaming,
‘Help, I can’t see anything. I can’t
breathe.’ I just heard a lot of people
crying.”
He fi nally made it outside the
apartment building with the toddler
Mahamed Keita, a Twin Parks North West
resident, rescued a 3-year-old girl from the
tragic Jan. 9 fi re that claimed the lives of 17,
including eight children. Photo courtesy
Mahamed Keita
and nervously waited for her
mother. He soon learned that during
her attempt to make it downstairs,
the mother and her other child broke
into an apartment, smashed a window
in an effort to allow fi refi ghters
to rescue them.
“At fi rst when I didn’t see them, I
was terrifi ed,” he said. “(The child)
was asking where’s mommy and I
was just praying God please for them
to come out safely.”
Keita went to the hospital for a
few hours and needed to go to a specialist
because he was still experiencing
headaches from the smoke inhalation.
According to Keita, due to the inadequate
heat in the building, people
using space heaters was common.
And since moving into the building,
he said it was always cold forcing
him to use his oven for warmth.
Since the fi re, Keita has not been
able to sleep; he has no plans to return
to his apartment and is working
with the city to fi nd a new home.
Following the tragic events in
January, Keita has since reunited
with the mom and her daughter, and
was happy to learn that the toddler is
doing well. However, he was shocked
to learn that a day after the fi re,
tenants of the building were told to
move back in.
“They (the landlord) don’t care
about people, they only care about
rent,” Keita said. “I’m so mad the
landlord is forcing people to move
back.”
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