NYC Man Dies Guiding Family, Neighbors From Apartment Fire

The man who ran toward the flames in a Manhattan apartment fire instead of away from them has been identified as 25-year-old Lance Garcia—and his mother, whom he helped save, still doesn't know he died, the New York Daily News reports. Garcia, whose fourth-floor windows didn't open onto a fire escape, pushed his mother, sister, and grandfather down to a lower floor where one was accessible, then went back upstairs to help others, his best friend tells the newspaper. Garcia was later found dead in the smoke-filled stairwell near the roof of the Inwood building, alongside former People en Español fashion editor Yolaine Diaz, 48, and her 73-year-old mother, Ana Mirtha Lantigua. CBS News reports they were overcome by smoke while trying to escape.

Prosecutors say the May 4 blaze began when tenant Victor Arias, 29, flicked a lit cigarette into a pile of cardboard boxes by the building's lone staircase at 12:27am, then left without alerting anyone. He's been charged with three counts of criminally negligent homicide and released without bail under travel restrictions. The Dyckman Street building had 117 open violations, including faulty self-closing doors and nonworking smoke detectors, and its landlord appears on the city public advocate's list of worst landlords. Fourteen tenants were hospitalized; Garcia's mother and grandfather remain in critical condition, while his sister has launched a GoFundMe to rebuild their lives. ABC 7 reports five victims in total are in critical condition, including children.