QUEENS, N.Y. – A frightening start to a Monday morning: a fire inside a 10-story building on West 87th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues, home to some of the city’s most vulnerable.

Edward Hecht Lives on 9th floor. He says it was scary because, “We didn’t know what was going on. No one knew what was going on.”

Sharon Epps lives on 5th floor. She says, “It was real smoky. It was by the stairs. You could see the smoke coming up."

The fire was reported around 10:15 a.m. It was what the FDNY considers a fairly routine call - until it wasn’t. A 71-year-old man was found dead in one of the apartments.

FDNY Battalion Chief Anthony Pascocello says his firefighters found the man's body while putting out the fire in Apartment 3F. A sprinkler had gone off.

Those who live and work at 166 West 87th Street are devastated. Eartha Johnson lived below the victim and said, “He’s a sweet man. Always stayed to himself. Always talked about his cats. Then I hear he passed away. Really heartbreaking.”

The Goddard Riverside Community Center operates the building known as Capitol Hall.

It has 201 single occupancy units, for people who are vulnerable to homelessness because of age, income or disability. Goddard Riverside, the Settlement Housing Fund and the local Block Association founded the program more than 30 years ago as an alternative to the building becoming luxury housing. Workers provide food and services, and staff the front desk around-the-clock.

Roderick Jones, the Exec Director of Goddard Riverside, says, “It’s a pretty tight knit community. Most of the residents have been here for decades together as well as the staff. So this is a pretty unfortunate occurrence and our staff as well as the residents are pretty hard hit.”

The fire was contained to the third floor apartment, and residents of other floors were allowed back in.

This death comes hours after the FDNY lost one of its own, a firefighter who fell to his death responding to a car crash on a bridge. The battalion chief says it always hurts to lose a firefighter but the public still needs us and we respond when they call.