A 63-year-old man was killed after a fire broke out in his Bronx apartment early Wednesday, officials and witnesses said.
Walter Jones, a former basketball player and MTA worker, was the fire's sole victim. The blaze erupted about 5:45 a.m. and trapped Jones in his first-floor apartment in a Fenton Ave. house in Laconia. He was rushed to Jacobi Hospital, but could not be saved.
His sister, who owns the house and lived above him on the second floor, learned of her sibling's death as she was being transported by ambulance to Jacobi Medical Center.
"My brother Walter Jones was a very outgoing person. He loved being around his family and friends," said Gloria Hastings, a retired home health care worker.
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Hastings, who was treated for smoke inhalation and released, said her brother had been married and had a son, Kyle Jones, 33, and a brand-new granddaughter, just three months old.
He also had a daughter, Taylor Rea Jones, 20, with longtime girlfriend Jacqueline Williams, who arrived weeping at the burned house Wednesday morning.
"He was a loving father. He was a dear companion to me, and he was a good man," said Williams, 53. She and Jones had been together 22 years, she said.
The 6-foot-7 Jones was a former college basketball star who played for Long Island University and was briefly drafted by the Washington Wizards.
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"He was drafted to play with the pros, but then he injured his ankle," his sister confirmed. He was cut from the team but went on to play in a European league until his injury curtailed his career, the family said.
Jones had spent Tuesday night at an LIU game, watching his former team prepare for the NCAA championships, Williams said. He played center for the school and was in their Hall of Fame, she said. Trophies and hats from his basketball years were just visible inside his smoky house.
He spoke to his girlfriend one last time last night, Williams said.
"He said, 'I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good night. I love you,'" Williams said between sobs.
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After his basketball career ended, Jones taught at Spofford and McCluskey, two juvenile correctional institutions. Then he drove an MTA bus from Westchester to lower Manhattan until he retired, his family said.
Neighbor John Brown, 62, who did house and yard work for Hastings, often saw Jones in the two-story brick house where he'd lived with his sister for the past four years.
"He was a stand-up guy. Do a favor for anybody, no questions asked," Brown said. "He looked for nothing in return. Would lend you money, give you cigarettes. If he could do it, he would."
According to Brown, who walked behind the house after the blaze was extinguished, the fire was confined to Jones' first-floor bedroom area in the back of the house.
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Firefighters desperately tried to resuscitate Jones before rushing him to the hospital, witnesses said.
"They were working on him right there on the sidewalk. They were doing CPR," said one neighbor, who didn't want to be identified. "They had to drag him out of the house. He was passed out."
The neighbor said she awoke to the smell of smoke.
"I got up and looked out and there was thick, black smoke coming out of the house," she said.
"He was a very good man, very nice," said the neighbor. "He was so helpful. When I would come home with groceries, he would always help me up the stairs, things like that."
A crime scene unit arrived at the house at mid-morning. The cause of the blaze was being investigated, but sources said initial findings don't indicate anything suspicious.
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