Lucas Y. Silverio Mendoza

Lucas Y. Silverio Mendoza died after attempting to rescue Yasleen Moreno from burning, Bronx, New York, June 9, 2019. At night, Yasleen, 3, alone, descended the smoky stairwell of a 16-floor apartment building after fire broke out in the building’s trash compactor chute. Silverio Mendoza, 19, student, was alerted to the fire and, along with other residents, began to evacuate the building via the same stairwell with his cousin and grandmother. As Silverio Mendoza descended he passed Yasleen, who was crying, and he continued to help his grandmother escape toward a lower floor. After descending partway to the lower floor, Silverio Mendoza told his cousin to tend to their grandmother so he could help Yasleen evacuate. Ascending the stairs to a landing between floors, he beckoned to Yasleen to follow him and began, again, to descend, but when she did not follow him he returned to the landing. As Silverio Mendoza reached out to her, nearly grasping her on the stairs, a sudden, powerful explosion in the trash compactor chute allowed fire, smoke, and blistering heat to enter the stairwell. Silverio Mendoza and Yasleen became separated in the blast. The force of the explosion buckled and charred walls, damaged apartments elsewhere on the floor, and knocked Silverio Mendoza down the stairs to a lower floor landing, where he lay, seriously injured with burns and a fractured skull. Silverio Mendoza’s cousin returned to aid Silverio Mendoza to a lower floor. Though burned, Yasleen continued down the stairwell to a lower floor where a firefighter found her and carried her down the stairwell to safety. Yasleen, suffered burns to more than 80 percent of her body and died in a hospital the following day. Silverio Mendoza was hospitalized for treatment of burns to more than 70 percent of his body and a head injury, but he died three days later.