Sukkah blocks Brooklyn woman from escaping apartment fire
10 people injured including 53-year-old, unable to flee flames, who remains unconscious on respirator after inhaling smoke
A Brooklyn woman was one of 10 people injured in an apartment fire after her balcony exit was blocked by the sukkah erected on her balcony.
Daniella Liby, 53, the divorced mother of three adult children, remains unconscious and on a respirator at a local hospital, the New York Daily News reported. The fire started early Monday morning in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Liby was unable to jump out a window of her second-floor apartment due to the metal bars covering them, and the sukkah blocked her escape from the balcony. She reportedly shouted for help while waiting to be rescued.
“She inhaled smoke,” her ex-husband, Sam Shulem, said. “She has a few burns… She’s not conscious. She’s on a respirator. They’ve intubated her.”
She works as a babysitter for neighborhood children, her ex-husband told the newspaper.