A holiday soup sparked a fire that killed three people and injured four FDNY firefighters late on New Year's Eve.
Louise Jean-Charles, 59, husband Napoleon Michel, 69, and relative Nadia Donnay, 37, were killed after the fire spread from the kitchen, to the living room, to the bedrooms in their Queens apartment.
Family members say the trio was cooking a traditional Haitian soup called Soup Joumou late on Wednesday night.
"We told them not to cook, not to prepare it because we usually cook it, but we left at 10 o'clock," Emmanuelle Geffrard told the New York Daily News. "We were excited to make the soup for the New Year."
Jean-Charles' son, Sergeory, confirmed that the family was cooking the pumpkin-based soup.
"They do it every year," the 36-year-old said. "It's a New Year's tradition."
FDNY Chief James Leonard said there was a "cooking mishap" that caused smoke to spread throughout the apartment at around 11:45pm.
A woman was found "wedged" behind the apartment's door, while the two other victims were found in the back of the apartment.
"The firefighters had to put out almost four rooms of fire to get to (the other two victims) in the back," Leonard explained. "All three were in cardiac arrest when removed."
Leonard said there were no smoke detectors in the unit, but the apartment complex disputed that allegation.
"The building has no fire violations and the apartment was outfitted with smoke detectors as required by law," the statement from LeFrak City read.
"A smoke detector rider attesting to the presence of this life safety equipment was signed and initialed by the tenant in 2012."
The family lived on the ninth floor of an 18-story building. The fire was fought for two hours by 150 firefighters, and four suffered minor injuries.
Linda Peralta, whose mother lives on the 11th floor, said the tragedy could have been much worse.
"Thank God it did happen on New Year's Eve," she said.
"If it was just a regular Wednesday then everybody would have been asleep and the fire could have spread to the apartments next door."
