Stop Smoking Way

A 64-year-old woman was killed in a fire early on Saturday at a residential building on Roosevelt Island, according to the police and the Fire Department.

The fire broke out about 5:30 a.m. on the 11th floor of the building, at 546 Main Street, where many older and disabled people live, the authorities said.

The woman, identified by the police as Mary Madriguera, 64, was found during a search of the floor. Fire marshals were investigating, but the Fire Department said it appeared that she had been smoking in bed in her apartment, No. 1106.

Firefighters from Roosevelt Island and Queens brought the blaze under control in about 45 minutes.

The brick building, parts of which rise 19 floors, also houses a center that provides activities and meals for older people. Some residents were evacuated during the fire. There were no reports of other injuries.

Daniele Weinstein, who lives on the 10th floor, said she was roused by the sound of an alarm and looked out the window up at the 11th floor. “I saw the window explode, and the flames came out,” Ms. Weinstein said. “The flames were enormous. I prayed no one was in there.”

Bella Bekkerman, 85, who lives on the 11th floor and referred to Ms. Madriguera as “Maria,” described her as a nice woman who had been a smoker. She said Ms. Madriguera had a stroke three years ago, and received help from a home attendant during the day, but not at night.

Ms. Bekkerman said she was awakened by a noise early on Saturday, and when she opened her door, she saw smoke. She said a neighbor told her, “It seems to me Maria is on fire.”

Ms. Bekkerman said two security guards broke open the door to the apartment. “When they break the door, the black, black smoke came out, so they closed the door,” Ms. Bekkerman added.

“When we saw the smoke, we decided she was dead,” she said. “She could not survive the smoke.”

Residents said that relatives sometimes came to visit Ms. Madriguera, and that she had a son.

Another woman who lived in the neighborhood said that she had sometimes seen Ms. Madriguera sitting in a wheelchair, smoking, and said that she liked to go to Atlantic City to gamble.

Ms. Madriguera’s apartment was inspected by state authorities in August, according to Joseph DePlasco, a spokesman for the building’s management company, Urban American Management. “A fire detection system would be inspected as part of that,” Mr. DePlasco said. “This unit did pass the inspection.”

It was the third fatal fire in the city in just over a week. On Oct. 12, a fire raced through an apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn, killing a man and the 12-year-old nephew he was raising.

The day before, a fire killed two adults and three of their children when it tore through their apartment in Chelsea. A fourth child, a boy, survived but was taken off life support last week when he was found to be brain-dead.

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Tags: Smoking, Women Smoking