25-Year-Old Victim of Upper East Side Fire Identified by NYPD

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The man killed during a Thursday morning fire that completely engulfed a six-story building on the Upper East Side has been identified by police.

Lemmy Thuku, 25, was found dead after being trapped on the third floor of 324 E. 93rd St., during a six-alarm fire that tore through a six-story row house in the Yorkville section of the neighborhood, police told Patch. Thuku was a resident of the building, police said.

At least 13 others were injured during the fire — eight of whom were firefighters — which broke out around 3:30 a.m. Thursday. One of those injured was an 81-year-old man who could have died if he wasn't pulled from the burning building in a daring rescue.

Firefighter James Lee Jr. was lowered on a rope from the roof of the burning building to grab the man spotted in a third-floor window in what is known by the FDNY as a roof-rope rescue. FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said that these types of rescues are uncommon because they put firefighters into a precarious situation.

Lee recounted the daring rescue in a post to the FDNY's Facebook page:

"He put his knee on the window sill and I grabbed him, held on to him tight, and the guys up top lowered us to the ground. When we looked up, the fire was coming out of all the windows in his apartment. Another two minutes and he probably wouldn’t be with us," Lee said Thursday.

By 5 a.m. Thursday morning, the massive fire at 324 E. 93rd St. had overtaken the entire apartment building and run through six alarms, officials said.

More than four hours after the fire broke out, around 7:45 a.m., the fire was finally declared "under control" by the FDNY. The century-old building that caught fire contains 10 apartments, according to real-estate listings online. Dozens of residents on the block — East 93rd Street between First and Second avenues — were evacuated Thursday while firefighters attacked the flames.

Photo: FDNY