Upper East Side fire: Nearly two dozen injured, including newborn and firefighters

A kitchen fire ripped through a luxury high-rise on the Upper East Side early Tuesday, injuring 22 people, including an infant and four firefighters, officials said.

The blaze initially erupted inside the kitchen of an apartment on the 24th floor of the 41-story condominium at 515 East 72nd shortly before 2 a.m., but quickly spread, thanks to an open apartment door, officials said.

The apartment’s occupants — who neighbors say are both doctors — tried to flee, but passed out in the hallway right outside the door, according to FDNY officials.

Their front door was left open, allowing flames to tear through the hallway and thick smoke to engulf the building near York Avenue, officials said.

Firefighters arrived on scene within three minutes and found the pair unconscious “outside of the doorway, but in the hall,” FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro told reporters at the scene. Officials initially said the pair was found inside the apartment.

They suffered smoke inhalation and burns and were taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition.

FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Joseph Ferrante told reporters that there was “scorching damage to the entire hallway” on the 24th floor “due to the fact that … they left that door open when they tried to exit the apartment and it changed the entire complexity of this fire.”

“It turned a kitchen fire – a one-room kitchen fire — into a fire that spread throughout the upper floors of the building,” Ferrante said. “We had multiple, numerous phone calls from the apartment above all the way to the roof complaining of smoke, people trapped, all due to the fact that the door was left open.”

The chief added that “had the door been closed, this would have been a one-room fire.”

Nigro noted that under New York City law “doors are required to be self-closing in multiple dwellings.”

“Obviously this door was not,” the commissioner, urging Big Apple residents to “close the door” during a fire.

An infant and an elderly person were taken to the hospital in serious condition, officials said.

Four firefighters sustained minor injuries and 14 others also suffered non-life threatening injuries in the blaze, officials said.

More than 100 FDNY members responded to the scene, and the fire was brought under control by 3:24 a.m., officials said.

A 37th-floor resident of the 329-unit building said that her son woke her up and alerted her to the fire.

“I grabbed my stuff and I started to head towards the door,” said the woman, who would only identify herself as Ann. “As soon as I opened the door, I was like ‘we are not going out there, that’s not possible.’ The hallway was filled with thick black smoke.”

She said when they went out on the balcony and looked down “a big orange flame just shot out and it was followed by black smoke. The smoke was moving up the wall.”

The cause of the fire remained under investigation.

The luxury building features a private park, indoor pool and gym.

A pair of two-bedroom apartments at the high-rise is currently on the market for $1.5 million and $1.8 million, according to StreetEasy.