( 4UMF NEWS ) Fireman Tries To Save Newborn:
New York’s Bravest could not save an innocent newborn from a burning Bronx apartment where her mother was found savagely stabbed and beaten to death Thursday night — even though one firefighter made it his mission to breathe life into the tiny lungs of the limp girl.
Firefighters discovered the 32-year-old woman naked and stuffed underneath a smoldering mattress inside her Albany Crescent apartment’s bathroom around 7:10 p.m., sources and witnesses said.
The woman had been stabbed multiple times and appeared to have died from blunt trauma to the head, said FDNY Deputy Fire Chief Joe Saccente.
“It appears that the fire was set to cover this up,” he said.
Inside the bathroom, firefighters also found the month-old baby in a bathtub with no water, Saccente said.
With the infant clinging to life, rescuers rushed her down four flights of stairs and onto the Kingsbridge neighborhood street, where an exclusive Daily News photo shows a firefighter desperately trying to save her.
Firefighters continued the ill-fated effort on the hood of a parked car, sources and witnesses said.
“She suffered from smoke inhalation and was in cardiac arrest,” Saccente said.
Frantic neighbors who escaped through hallways filled with thick black smoke were in shock at the scene.
“She was just a little thing,” wailed Kizzy Marte, 47, who lived across the hall from the woman and her daughter.
“Why do something like this? Why do people do things like this?” Marte said, breaking into tears.
Authorities rushed the infant to Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, where she died, police said.
The medical examiner has not determined the cause of death, sources said.
Neighbors said the woman, who was not identified, had lived with a boyfriend in her fourth-floor apartment until recently. A neighbor said the woman’s estranged boyfriend is the father of the dead child.
The couple had a dysfunctional and often violent relationship, neighbors said. They added that the woman also has a 7-year-old daughter who did not live with her.
