A ladder truck racing to a building fire crashed into an ambulance carrying a heart attack victim early Thursday morning in Brooklyn, killing the patient and critically injuring his sister, who was riding with him to the hospital.
Six firefighters and two emergency service workers were also injured in the accident and were in stable condition at a hospital. Two people in another car were also hurt when the ambulance careened into it.
The crash happened at around 1 a.m. at the intersection at Myrtle and Throop Avenues in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, a time when the streets were relatively empty and quiet, police and fire officials said.
The victim, whom a family member identified as Jamil Almansouri, 59, was being transported to Woodhull Medical Center after having a heart attack, officials said.
The ambulance was a block away from the hospital when the ladder truck, rushing to a large fire at 721 Willoughby Avenue, collided with it, hitting it broadside and sending it into another stopped car.
Investigators are looking into whether scaffolding at the intersection obstructed the views of the drivers of the truck and the ambulance, an official said.
Mr. Almansouri was pronounced dead at Woodhull Medical Center, officials said. His sister, 35, who was riding in the back of the ambulance, was in critical but stable condition at Kings County Hospital Center.
Mr. Almansouri had just visited the doctor the day before the accident, his brother, Abdullah Ahmed, said. That night, Mr. Almansouri began complaining of having difficulty breathing, and an ambulance was called for him.
Mr. Almansouri had emigrated to Brooklyn from Yemen more than 20 years ago, Mr. Ahmed said, and still has children and family in that country. He owned a bodega on Quincy and Throop Avenues, Mr. Ahmed said, and was a fixture in the neighborhood where the accident occurred.
“Almost everybody there knows him,” Mr. Ahmed said.