Four Dead in Flushing Fire as City Probes Overcrowded Building, Homicide Ruling

Flames were already ripping through all three floors of the corner building when firefighters pulled up to College Point Boulevard and Avery Avenue just before 12:30 p.m. on March 16. Wind gusts near 40 mph pushed the fire through connected structures in Flushing, Queens, as residents on the upper floors scrambled to escape.

Some jumped from windows. One person was plucked from a second-floor ledge by a firefighter on a portable ladder. Inside, a staircase between the first and second floors collapsed under two firefighters, who had to be rescued by their colleagues.

By the time the flames were out, four people were dead, including a 3-year-old girl. Twelve others were injured, among them six firefighters. What began as a four-alarm fire in a mixed-use building has now been ruled a homicide, and investigators are focusing on how a property that city officials knew was dangerously overcrowded could still be packed with residents.

“This is a difficult and tragic day,” Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said at the scene. “The Fire Department did an extraordinary job under difficult circumstances, putting this fire out and saving people.”

Deaths ruled homicides; investigation widens

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner has classified the deaths of four victims as homicides: 3-year-old Sihan Yang; Chengri Cui, 50; a 61-year-old woman; and a 63-year-old man. The ruling triggered a full NYPD homicide investigation alongside continuing work by FDNY fire marshals and the city Department of Buildings.

As of late March, officials had not publicly identified a cause of the fire, and no arrests had been announced. But public records and interviews with neighbors show a long history of complaints, building code violations and a partial vacate order that had been in place for six years.

A corner property with connected buildings

The fire broke out in a residential structure at 132-05 Avery Ave., which shares a corner footprint and interior connections with the mixed-use building at 44-49 College Point Blvd. The corner property has a ground-floor commercial space facing College Point Boulevard, with residential units on the upper floors and extending along Avery Avenue.

When firefighters arrived March 16, “we had heavy fire on all three floors of this building,” FDNY Chief of Operations Kevin Woods said. He said three residents jumped from upper windows to escape the heat and smoke, while another trapped on the second floor was brought down a portable ladder.

Three victims were pronounced dead at the scene. A fourth died a short time later at a nearby hospital. Most of the injured were reported in stable condition; at least two civilians were initially listed as critical.

Records show years of warnings and an active vacate order

Behind the dramatic rescue efforts is a paper trail indicating city officials had already flagged the building as unsafe.

In 2020, Department of Buildings (DOB) inspectors responding to complaints examined the Avery Avenue structure, which is legally registered as a two-family home. Inside, they found the layout had been carved into what amounted to seven separate living arrangements, including single-room occupancies and extra bedrooms created without permits.

According to DOB records, inspectors reported five single-room occupancies and nine additional bedrooms, some behind key-locking doors and outfitted with beds, televisions, cooking equipment, refrigerators and food—signs the rooms were being used as de facto independent apartments.

That same year, the department issued a partial vacate order for the second and third floors of 132-05 Avery Ave., citing illegal conversions and unsafe conditions. The order remained active on March 16—meaning those floors were not supposed to be occupied when the fire broke out.

They were.

Neighbors describe persistent overcrowding and hazards

Neighbors say people continued to come and go in the years after the vacate order, with some describing a revolving cast of tenants and squatters.

“That building is chaos,” one neighbor said. “There’s a lot of garbage… and there’s a distinct smell that comes from there. The door is always open like anyone can just walk in.”

City complaint data show concerns about the property dating back decades. One television report found complaints of illegal apartment conversions as far back as 1998. Between 2023 and 2025, there were at least 19 complaints to the city’s 311 line for the Avery Avenue address, including reports of squatting and homeless encampments, rodent infestations, blocked driveways and claims that the building had been abandoned and was in disrepair.

Some neighbors described the basement as divided into tiny rooms.

“They’re like shoe boxes,” one resident said. “You can easily put ten people living in that basement.”

Others described slot machines being brought into the building and said they believed illegal gambling was taking place inside. Several reported extension cords running through hallways and across floors as squatters or tenants allegedly tapped into existing outlets.

In January—less than two months before the fire—DOB cited the property’s owner for failing to maintain the building, noting extension cords “running throughout the hallway from first to third floors,” a well-known fire hazard in overcrowded buildings where permanent wiring is insufficient for the number of occupants and appliances.

After the fire: vacate orders, shutoffs, and structural damage

After the blaze, DOB placed full vacate orders on both the Avery Avenue and College Point Boulevard addresses. Inspectors documented collapsed sections of roof and floor at the Avery address and significant structural damage and holes in the roof and interior walls of the College Point building. Gas and electricity were shut off.

The building’s troubled history has drawn scrutiny from elected officials who say the case underscores weaknesses in how New York enforces its own safety rules.

“If there are long-standing violations, then this is something that needs to be followed up on more often by the authorities,” State Sen. John Liu said. “Inspections make sure that people are not living in an unsafe situation.”

A complaint-driven system—and a citywide problem

The Department of Buildings oversees construction codes and illegal conversions citywide. Its enforcement is largely complaint-driven: inspectors are dispatched in response to 311 calls, and serious hazards can lead to violations, fines and vacate orders. Physically clearing a building, however, often requires cooperation from police, housing agencies or the courts.

A 2024 audit by the city comptroller found that enforcement against illegal dwelling units is frequently slowed by limited staffing and long follow-up times, particularly in one- and two-family homes that have been subdivided into multiple apartments. The report noted that vacate orders can remain on the books for years while people continue to live inside.

Vacate orders are common. According to City Council testimony last year, DOB issued 1,856 vacate orders in 2024, including 485 full vacates and more than 1,000 partial ones.

The Flushing fire also fits a pattern of deadly incidents linked to illegal or unsafe residential conditions in New York City, including the 2005 Bronx blaze known as “Black Sunday,” the 2015 East Village gas explosion tied to an illegal hookup, and the 2022 Twin Parks North West fire in the Bronx that killed 17 people.

Illegal conversions and overcrowded units are a persistent problem in neighborhoods like Flushing, where high rents and limited affordable housing push low-income residents—including many immigrants and undocumented workers—into informal basement apartments, subdivided rooms and other off-the-books arrangements. City reports have found that illegal occupancies have been factors in a significant share of child fire deaths.

At the same time, enforcement actions that shutter illegal units can displace entire families, a tension that has complicated the city’s response.

What the homicide ruling could mean

In this case, the medical examiner’s decision to classify the four deaths as homicides suggests investigators are examining whether individual actions or systemic neglect rose to the level of criminal conduct. Legal experts say potential charges could range from arson, if the fire was deliberately set, to criminally negligent homicide or other offenses tied to unsafe conditions—depending on what the investigation uncovers and who exercised control over the property.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in a post on social media on the day of the fire, said the city was “mourning the loss of four New Yorkers after today’s devastating four-alarm fire in Flushing,” and thanked firefighters and emergency medical workers “who rushed in within minutes, risking their lives to rescue residents and bring the fire under control.”

For now, displaced residents are living with the aftermath, and families are planning funerals. The corner building at College Point Boulevard and Avery Avenue stands empty behind city-ordered vacate notices, its burned roofline visible above the busy commercial strip below.

The investigation will determine how the fire started and whether anyone will face charges. It will also test whether, after years of warnings about illegal conversions and unenforced vacate orders elsewhere in the city, four deaths in a building that was supposed to be partly empty will lead to changes in how New York keeps people—and the buildings they live in—safe.