A Washington Heights handyman died early Wednesday when a fire ripped through his apartment building, officials said.
The blaze erupted inside the basement of the W. 184th St. building near Wadsworth Ave. about 8:50 a.m., officials said.
"I was sleeping in my bed," said resident Karen Soto, 19.
"I smelled smoke and I looked out my window and I saw a lot of smoke rising from the bottom of the building."
Soto and her neighbors were evacuated without any injuries, officials said.
"I smell like I smoked ten packs of cigarettes," Soto said.
But when the fire was put out, smoke eaters found the burned remains of the building handyman, who neighbors only knew as "George."
"He was a really nice guy, really friendly," Soto said of George, who was in his 60s and had lived in the basement for about 20 years. "He was a big part of the building. Whenever you didn't see him for a few days, it was like 'Where's George?'"
FDNY Deputy Chief Joe Saccent said the fire started in a storage room in the back of the building — where George was sleeping.
Saccent said the victim had been "living in the storage room with a lot of clutter."
"It was a difficult fire," the fire chief said. "The main body of fire extinguished rather quickly, but it got up into the voids and it got under bathtubs and tile above, so we had to do quite a bit of dismantling of the building to get to the seed of the fire so it wouldn't spread throughout the whole building."
Neighbors said George had not been feeling well lately and had constant fights with the building landlord, who wanted him to move out.
"(They) wanted him to leave for years, but he didn't want to go," said 66-year-old resident Maria Reynoso. "Last week somebody called the ambulance because he was sick."
FDNY fire marshals are investigating the cause of the blaze.