Neighbors described the Queens woman as kind but fiercely independent, living alone for decades in a cluttered house with numerous cats

By Thomas Tracy, Sheetal Banchariya, Leonard Greene
New York Daily News

NEW YORK — An 85-year-old woman who died in a Queens house fire lived in a cluttered home with lots of cats, a neighbor said.

Fire officials are still investigating to determine if the clutter contributed to the blaze that broke out early Monday morning in the College Point home and killed the longtime homeowner, whose name was being withheld pending family notification.

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Responding firefighters found the victim unconscious in a first-floor bedroom.

EMS rushed her to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, where she died of her injuries.

Zuyao Yang, 80, a longtime friend and neighbor who lived next door on 26th Ave., said the victim was friendly, generous and stubbornly independent.

“She lived alone here,” Yang said. “She didn’t like to accept anyone’s help, especially for money. One time, I went to Costco, bought one box of water, and I said, ‘You can drink this water.’ But she told me, ‘No, no, you must take back.’”

He said she was the same way about the clutter, which he said he offered to help her clean.

“She said, ‘No, no, no,’” he recalled. “And the stove was so dirty. There was a lot of dust, so I don’t think she cooked.”

Yang said she had no family except a sister-in-law and two nieces who moved to Florida.

Yang said his neighbor had lived in the house for more than 60 years, and that he and his wife often looked out for her.

“Sometimes she parked in my private parking place,” he said. “I told her, ‘When you don’t have parking, you can anytime park in my place.’”

Her blue Volkswagen Passat was still parked outside her home.

It was unclear what happened to the cats.

Two firefighters suffered minor injuries combating the blaze, which was put out within an hour.

Fire marshals were trying to determine what caused the blaze.

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