by COLIN MOYNIHAN
A suspicious fire that erupted in a brownstone in Bedford-Stuyvesant early Monday injured 13 people and required a firefighter to charge through a wall of flames carrying an injured civilian.
As smoke billowed through the four-story building at 175 Putnam Avenue before dawn, residents rushed to open windows where they yelled for help and gasped for air. One firefighter, Jim Myers, a 20-year veteran, said that as he stood near a window of the four-story house on Putnam Avenue, thick smoke was "chugging out brown." As he was about to follow a colleague, Peter Demontreux, into the brownstone, "the whole room just flashed" and was filled with fire.
At first, Firefighter Myers said, he feared that his colleague was in serious jeopardy, but as he began calling for assistance, Firefighter Demontreux emerged through a window carrying a resident.
"I looked through the window at Pete and Pete was on fire," Firefighter Myers said.
"His helmet, his back, the whole room, over his head." A moment later, Firefighter Demontreux jumped through the window and onto the ladder.
A Fire Department spokesman, Jim Long, said that nine civilians were injured, one critically, in the fire. Firefighter Demontreux suffered first-degree burns to his face, Mr. Long said.
The fire began around 4:30 a.m. Fire marshals and police detectives were investigating what caused the blaze, which the authorities have deemed suspicious. A resident of the brownstone said it was started by somebody who flung an incendiary device into the building.
Another resident, who gave only his first name, Henri, said that he heard somebody trying to get in the building's front door and was on the phone with a 911 operator when the door flew open and an object was thrown into the hall, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass.
"I heard an explosion," he said. "And then the whole building was in flames."
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