Sukkah Blocks Brooklyn Woman From Escaping Apartment Fire

By JTA October 16, 2017

(JTA) — A Brooklyn woman was one of 10 people injured in an apartment fire after her balcony exit was blocked by the sukkah erected on her balcony.

Daniella Liby, 53, the divorced mother of three adult children, remains unconscious and on a respirator at a local hospital, the New York Daily News reported. The fire started early Monday morning in the Boro Park neighborhood.

Liby was unable to jump out a window of her second-floor apartment due to the metal bars covering them, and the sukkah blocked her escape from the balcony. She reportedly shouted for help while waiting to be rescued.

She works as a babysitter for neighborhood children, her ex-husband told the newspaper.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO