Results tagged “fire”

A retired firefighter is charged with setting fire to an abandoned Staten Island home earlier this week. Apparently a witness saw a man leaving the scene at 791 Annadale Road and the description of the man matched Glen Midbo, who is now being investigated for starting another abandoned house fire on Christmas Day. Midbo was arrested and released on $10,000 bail. His lawyer said his client was playing chess at the time of the fire and criticized the SI DA's refusal to question the witnesses.

A two-alarm fire broke out at 55 Harrison Place in Bushwick, Brooklyn around 4:48 a.m. this morning. According to WCBS 2, one person, who was "one of two people trapped by flames on the second floor," died while "Four other people were injured; three with minor injuries and one with more serious injuries."

Yesterday a five-alarm blaze that damaged a strip of stores in the Norwood section of the Bronx has residents and business owners—not to mention fire department officials— suspicious. The fire, on East 204th Street near Bainbridge Avenue, is the second in two months for the neighborhood—a five-alarm fire on Bainbridge near East 204th Street also destroyed businesses. One resident told WABC 7, "The first time it was the bakery and now again, it doesn't make sense."

The city's new Fire Department commissioner is also the agency's highest-ranking uniformed officer. Mayor Bloomberg selected FDNY Chief Salvatore Cassano — who has 40 years of departmental experience and numerous citations for bravery — to replace retiring Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.

So what was the scene like inside of Macy's Herald Square yesterday, as their flagship store went up in flames? Okay, it was just a small fire, but it evacuated the store as thick, black smoke traveled throughout floors. One tourist said, "I don’t know why they didn’t immediately evacuate the [entire] building. I was very scared."

Around 4:30 a.m., huge fire started in a store at East 204th Street near Bainbridge Avenue in the Bronx—and it spread to neighboring stores. According to WABC 7, "Heavy flames shot through the roof of several of the businesses. The Foodtown supermarket, American Diner, and Bainbridge Dental Associates were all damaged by the flames." And WCBS 2 reports that there were no injuries but "The early morning wind may have complicated rescue efforts against the blaze." In October, a five-alarm fire damaged businesses on Bainbridge Avenue near East 204th Street for the 2nd time this year.

Photos via Rich_Rare and ShallowSeas Twitters

Last month, a typo apparently sent firefighters on a wild goose chase and delayed them from reaching a Queens fire where three people were killed and four injured in an illegally subdivided home. Now, one of the victims is suing the city. The NY Post reports, "Shari Ahammed, 30, spent 18 days in a burn unit after his hair caught fire as he tried to alert fellow residents of the illegally subdivided house in Woodside. [His] lawyer, Herb Subin, said he'll file a notice of claim for unspecified damages Monday." Subin noted, "The Department of Buildings should never have let this place be carved up into five apartments. And the Fire Department should not have sent fire engines to the wrong house. The delay was over five minutes."

Last night, a fire broke out in a Borough Park apartment, and neighbors say it was started by a menorah. WCBS 2 reports, a 3-year-old girl "suffered third degree burns and went into cardiac arrest." She is now at Staten Island University Hospital. The girl and her four siblings were being watched by a neighbor in her 70s, who was able to leave the apartment with the other children. Other neighbors told the Fire Department there was still a child in a back room. One said, "The menorah must've tipped over and the house started burning."

A Staten Island senior rescued his wife from a fire that ripped through their New Brighton apartment on Saturday — but he suffered a fatal heart attack on the way out of the building.

When parishioners at The Glory of Christ Church in the Parkchester section of The Bronx arrived for service on Sunday morning, they found their church—located in a formerly run-down synagogue that they'd lovingly rescued from decay—reduced to a smoldering ruin. The fire, which broke out around 4 a.m., took 100 firefighters to extinguish and is being investigated as a hate crime. The walls were spray-painted with a pentagram, "666," and "Hail to Satan," along with, "We hate Jews and Christians" and "GET OFF OUR BLOCK." After stealing $300 from the offering box, vandals stacked chairs in the sanctuary and set them on fire.

While it was previously reported that crack pipes were found in former Knick Dean Meminger's rented room in the Bronx, the NY Post spoke to an FDNY source who said, "We have not found a crack pipe in his room," though the source did acknowledge "at least one crack pipe was found in the building." A four-alarm fire started in the SRO—and later spread to other buildings— and Meminger was found unconscious by firefighters. He is recovering in a burn unit.

Firefighters recovered the remains of two men from a burning van in Sunset Park last night. The victims — whose names have not yet been released — were apparently homeless and lived in the van, which had been parked near the Gowanus Expressway at the corner of 45th Street and Third Avenue for two years, according to neighbors. Investigators told the Times it's possible that the men, who were pronounced dead at the scene, had set a fire to keep warm. Last winter, a homeless man was found burnt to death in Owls Head Park, just 20 blocks away from yesterday's Sunset Park blaze. In that instance, police surmised that the victim had surrounded himself with candles to keep warm.

Just days after a student was suspended from Stuyvesant High School for allegedly setting fires, investigators say a copycat arsonist has been lighting blazes in the esteemed Lower Manhattan school — and taunting police in hieroglyphics.

Dean Meminger, the former Knicks great nicknamed "The Dream," is in a burn unit at Jacobi Hospital after suffering injuries from a four-alarm fire in the Bronx. The Fire Department is continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze, after reports that crack pipes were found in a building where the fire was started—and some of the crack pipes may have been in Meminger's rented room.

A fire broke out in a Bronx home last night around 9:20 p.m. and quickly spread to neighboring homes, becoming a four-alarm blaze. Ultimately, it took over 200 firefighters and three hours to put out the fire on Findlay Avenue in the Claremont section. Now 45 people (and one cat) are left homeless.

A 16-year-old Stuyvesant High School student was caught on camera setting two fires in school bathrooms this week, according to police. Cops arrested junior Mohammed Hassan after obtaining surveillance tapes that apparently show the teen entering a seventh-floor bathroom at 1:13 pm and leaving two minutes later as a trash can went up in flames. At 1:16 pm, a different camera purportedly captures Hassan entering and quickly exiting another bathroom, leaving "bright orange and yellow flames rising out of a large garbage can," according to investigators quoted by the Daily News.

After 911 operators mistakenly dispatched firefighters to the wrong addresses in response to at least two fatal fires, the NYPD and FDNY announced that they will alter the city's emergency phone-answering system. Police phone operators will still respond to all 911 calls — continuing the so-called "Unified Call Taking System" which was launched in May — but when a caller reports a fire, the operator will electronically transmit the data to the FDNY and an FDNY official will have the chance "to listen in on the emergency fire calls and ask additional questions," according to the Post.

Yesterday, a fire in a Crown Heights apartment building killed a man, 42, and his two young sons, ages 2 and 1. While the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, fire officials said incense had been burned in the bedroom (where the fire began) and that there were no smoke detectors in the home.

A fire broke out in a six-story Crown Heights apartment building earlier today, killing three. Officials told CBS 2 reports that, "firefighters were called to a blaze that broke out in the Crown Heights section of the borough at 654 St. Marks Ave. at Rogers Ave. about 1:30 p.m. Two children, ages, 2 and 3, along with a 45-year-old man were pronounced dead at the scene." The names of the victims have not yet been released, and the cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

A 75-year-old man perished in a Queens house fire yesterday when he ran back into the blaze to get his cellphone. Air Force veteran Nathan Lagree had already helped his wife and his eight-months-pregnant daughter escape from their single-family home in Springfield Gardens at around 6:20 am when he realized he forgot his phone.

A mother of two was set on fire in the doorway of her Long Island City apartment yesterday morning by her estranged boyfriend and father of one of the children. Neighbors in the woman's Queensbridge Houses building say the woman had previously thrown the suspect, 25-year-old Kehman Clark, out of the home. He returned to visit yesterday morning, but stormed off after a domestic dispute, only to return with a can of gasoline.

When firefighters arrived at an apartment on 138th Street on Aug. 18, they were expecting to find a broken water pipe — not a pregnant woman whose water had just broken. In a 911 dispatching gaffe, an operator classified a call about a woman going into labor as a water leak and sent out Ladder Co. 28 "armed with hooks, wrenches and flashlights but no medical gear," the Post reports.

As debate continues over whether a fire dispatcher's typo led to three deaths and four injuries in a Woodside, Queens home on Saturday, it turns out the basement apartments where the victims lived had been eyed by the Department of Buildings before. According to the Daily News, the two-family home "had been illegally converted into a five-family residence with another seven single rooms"—but when the DOB inspected it in 1990 and 2004, they found nothing wrong!

Firefighters responding to a deadly Woodside fire that killed three and injured four in an illegal basement apartment yesterday could have arrived sooner — had they not been routed to the wrong address first. A 911 operator mistakenly entered a two instead of a five and sent Engine Company 292 and Rescue Company 4 on a "wild goose chase" to 62nd Street instead of 65th Street, a delay that cost firefighters about 2 minutes and 30 seconds, according to the fire union.

A fire claimed the lives of three men and critically injured four others when it ripped through an illegal basement apartment this morning in Woodside, Queens. The blaze broke out in the two-story home's improperly partitioned basement at around 2:45 am, according to the Daily News. When firefighters arrived at the "chaotic scene," they discovered "badly-burned victims" on the "front sidewalk, just inside the front door and beneath a basement window." The surviving victims were taken to the New York Hospital-Cornell Burn Center. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Firefighters are investigating the cause of a blaze that killed a woman in an apartment at 250 West 104th Street yesterday before 6 p.m. The Post reports the woman's mother attempted to rescue her 48-year-old daughter but the daughter's bedroom was "mysteriously blockaded, according to neighbors who responded to the mom's cries for help." (NY1 says the door was blocked with suitcases.) The daughter died of smoke inhalation; more than 60 firefighters fought the fire.

In what must be the least surprising news item of the day, the law firm that was planning on hiring Brian Schroeder — the 26-year-old Harvard Law School grad suspected of setting a fire in a chapel containing the remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — has revoked its offer. The firm Sidley Austin recanted on its decision to hire Schroeder, who turned himself in to police after setting a blaze on Saturday morning that destroyed flowers, photos, and other mementos inside Memorial Park on the corner of First Avenue and East 30th Street. According to cops, he set the fire on a drunk dare, but Schroeder's attorney claims the Texas native, who moved to New York to accept the law job, had been drugged.

The Harvard Law School grad suspected of setting a fire inside a memorial for unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks claims he was drugged before he torched the shrine. A lawyer representing 26-year-old Brian Schroeder said someone might have "put something in his drink" before the 26-year-old Ivy Leaguer — who moved to New York to accept a job at a law firm — set a blaze that destroyed flowers, notes, photos, and other mementos inside Memorial Park at First Avenue and East 30th Street. In fact, the attorney claims that Schroeder didn't realize he was setting a fire in a 9/11 memorial, "although police sources said he made sure to gather many of the teddy bears left by victims' families to start the fire," according to the Post.

Owners of 14 businesses destroyed by a five-alarm fire on Saturday may get a hand from the city—the city's Department of Small Business Services emergency response unit has been meeting with them, according to the Daily News. The agency said, "Our team is helping these businesses obtain copies of permits/licenses consumed by the fire, expedite [Fire Department] reports required for insurance claims as well as connecting them to other N.Y.C. Business Solutions services."