ALEX EDELMAN/AFP via Getty Images
- A 73-year-old woman died during a power outage at an apartment building on Friday, police said.
- The woman was trying to make it to her 19th-floor apartment with her oxygen tank when she collapsed.
- Police say her oxygen tank ran out during her climb up the stairs.
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A 73-year-old woman died on Friday while trying to walk up the stairs to the 19th floor with a portable oxygen tank during a blackout at a New York City apartment building.
A power outage affected multiple buildings and residents in Co-Op City, the Bronx on Friday, WABC reported. Police believe the woman took the stairs to her apartment due to the blackout and collapsed when her oxygen tank ran out, an NYPD spokesperson told Insider in a statement.
“Upon arrival, responding officers discovered an unconscious and unresponsive 73-year-old female inside the stairwell between the 19th and 18th floors of the location,” the spokesperson said. “EMS also responded to the scene and pronounced the female deceased.”
The incident is under investigation, and a medical examiner will “determine the cause of death,” police said.
The woman is identified as Ada Longmore, according to the New York Post.
"My mother thought she could have made it up these stairs. Oh my God, I don't how she did it," Longmore's daughter, Sandra Nicholas, told the New York Post. It must be her will to live because I don't know how she did it."
"Our condolences go out to this woman's family as we send them love and strength as they grieve, Congressman Jamaal Bowman tweeted Saturday. "Co-Op City urgently needs infrastructure investment and repairs."
—Co-Op City Police (@CCPDnyc) February 28, 2021
The power was restored Friday night, but residents faced another outage on Sunday, according to CBS New York. Officials said they are working on the problem on Sunday morning.