More than 150 firefighters responded to a power outage Sunday morning in a large apartment complex in East New York that left five injured and another five stranded in elevators.
Power at Spring Creek Towers apartments was lost at about 5 a.m., according to the Fire Department, and first responders spent hours checking the more than 100 elevators on the grounds that are home to 5,881 residential units in about 40 residential towers.
FDNY Deputy Chief Michael Ajello said firefighters also completed “wellness checks” in approximately 30 apartments of residents with special medical needs. Ajello said the department has responded to power outages at Spring Creek “multiple times.”
Of the injured, two were transported to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center; a third was sent to Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center and the other two declined medical attention.
A woman connected to an oxygen tank was also discovered unresponsive and declared dead during the outage, FDNY Deputy Chief Edward Bobb told reporters.
“Our technicians responded and they evaluated that person and there were obvious signs of death,” Bobb said. “It seems that that person had been deceased for a while but it’s currently being investigated by the ME.”
A spokesman for the Police Department said the department had determined that the woman’s death was not related to the outage. Police did not confirm the identity of the woman.
Power was restored to all residential units in the complex by 10 a.m., according to a spokesman from Brooksville Company, which owns the complex.
The spokesman for Brooksville, which acquired the complex in May, said the company plans to overhaul the power system.
“The initial phases of the overhaul are scheduled to commence in September and will ultimately result in new equipment for the plant together with permanent backup generators,” the spokesman said in a statement. “Brooksville will continue to work diligently to make these sorts of outages a thing of the past.”
