Results tagged “fire”

An FDNY fire prevention inspector has been accused of claiming he was inspecting boilers when he was really just sitting in his car. Robert Stewart, 40, has been hit with 38 counts of falsifying records for lying about examining boilers in 19 Queens residences when he would actually just fill out the necessary paperwork without leaving his vehicle. more ›

Right around Christmas last year, there was a fire at the Macy's in Herald Square... and now it's happening again! We just got word over the newswire that the store, at 151 West 34th Street, has been fully evacuated and power has been "removed." Last year's fire began on an escalator, and this time around it's in the sub-basement; CityRoom reports it has not reached the retail part of the store. There are no reported injuries, and as of 1:15 p.m. "all visible fire" has been put out. more ›

Early this morning, a three alarm fire broke out in the basement of a building on Cliff Street in Manhattan's Financial District. According to WABC 7, a bartender at Ryan Maguire's Ale House "smelled smoke just after 2:30 a.m." The fire, which reportedly started in an outlet in a closet, spread to the first floor, seriously damaging the restaurant and bar, while smoke reached the apartments above it (residents were treated for smoke inhalation). The FDNY is investigating the cause. more ›

Today a judge overturned the conviction of a landlord whose illegally subdivided Bronx building caught fire in 2005, killing two firefighters as they struggled to find an exit. The firemen's widows were enraged by the decision, reports the Daily News. "The scar has just been opened up again and again and again," said Jeanette Meyran, whose husband died on what's come to be known as Black Sunday. "It's such an abuse of the system." more ›

Last night a woman clung to an air conditioner to escape the fire that was ravaging her Bronx apartment. After climbing out onto the unit she lost her hold and fell, but survived with a broken leg. "She was hanging on to the air conditioner and she lost her grip," said a neighbor who witnessed the amazing escape. "She did not scream. She hit the steps and bounced." The woman was still conscious when firefighters arrived at her side. “'There's somebody else up there,” she told the FDNY’s Rocco Cocciolillo, who fought the “real big blaze.” more ›

Yesterday when 20-year-old Caleb Lacey was convicted of setting a fire that killed a mother and three children, he tried to flee from the premises and was pushed to the ground by court officers, who yelled for quiet in the courtroom. The former-volunteer fireman was found guilty on four counts of murder while committing arson, as well as manslaughter and reckless endangerment. more ›

A four-alarm fire ripped through a SoHo loft building early this morning, leaving three families homeless. The fire began just before 4 a.m. inside 82 Greene Street and spread quickly, causing a section of the second floor to collapse atop firefighters who were trying to put it out the blaze. more ›

The infant held outside a fifth-story window during a Bronx apartment fire escaped the blaze unscathed. "My baby is doing fine," said Saschelle Hewitt, whose cousin dangled her 7-month-old daughter Zaniyah Alexander out a window so the child wouldn't suffocate. "She's the only one without bumps and bruises." more ›

A six-year-old died yesterday after firefighters and paramedics were routed to 277 Avenue C in Brooklyn, instead of 277 Avenue C in Manhattan. The boy's family called 911 at 9:03 am to report their child was suffering cardiac arrest, but by the time responders arrived at the address in the proper borough 19 minutes later he had perished. more ›

A Coney Island grandmother is facing criminal charges after an 11-year-old autistic boy who was left home alone perished in a fire yesterday. Investigators believe Melinda McLain was at the store when Tavon Turpin began playing with matches or a lighter in a closet of their 15th-floor apartment and set the fire that took his life. more ›

An 11-year-old boy perished in a high-rise fire in Coney Island on Tuesday when he was left alone in his family's apartment. The fire broke out on the 15th floor of the Ocean Towers building on W. 24th street at around 12:15 pm, according to the Daily News. The boy's grandmother had left the apartment to go to the store just before the blaze broke out, and reportedly "broke down and wept when she returned home and saw the boy's lifeless body." The boy's name has not yet been released. "They were pumping his heart," witness Elphine Ahrendts, 14, told the tabloid. "His eyes were red [and] he only had on underwear ... He wasn't breathing ... They couldn't help him." more ›

Early this morning another fire in Queens took the life of a 60-year-old grandma who was unable to escape before firemen arrived and doused the flames. Deborah Kelly lived on the 17th floor of a Lefrak City building on 57th Avenue. Around 3 a.m. neighbors smelled smoke and went to investigate, reports the Daily News. "[The neighbor] went up to Deborah's door and felt the heat so he knew it was coming from there," said Loretta Henderson, who lives on the same floor. "He knocked, but didn't get an answer. So, he called 911." The FDNY arrived in three minutes and got the the fire under control in under an hour, but for Kelly it was too late. "They opened up the door, a lot of thick, black smoke blew out," said Henderson. "That's when they went in and found her."
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A fire ripped through a Bronx public housing project yesterday afternoon, forcing a woman to dangle a baby out of a fifth-story window while she waited for rescuers to arrive. The blaze broke out at around 2 pm inside a closet in an apartment in the Pelham Parkway Houses and quickly spread through the three-bedroom residence, sending victims to the windows gasping for air. more ›

A fire broke out in a Bronx public housing project this afternoon, leaving residents "hanging from the windows" until firefighters arrived. According to police scanner reports, the blaze erupted in a building in the Pelham Parkway Houses near the corner of Pelham Parkway and Wallace Avenue. The scanner indicates the fire injured nine people, one of them seriously. ABC reports the fire started on the fifth floor at around 2 pm and injured five people, though none of them suffered life threatening injuries. more ›

With fires breaking out right and left—including one that originated in a furniture shop and wiped out a row of beloved mom-and-pop stores this weekend—Queens lawmakers are now saying there may not be time to make massive cuts to the FDNY. Mayor Bloomberg had previously proposed getting rid of 20 fire companies around the city, as well as those quaint street fire alarm boxes. According to NY1, Councilman Daniel Dromm and Assemblyman Jose Peralta say the Queens fire "proves the city needs to find a way to keep all of its firehouses open." Demolition crews are clearing out what's left of the eight businesses that were destroyed in Jackson Heights. Meanwhile, the city's other recent fire victims, especially those of a Brooklyn fire that killed five, continue to mourn and recoup from their losses. more ›

Last night a fire killed a woman at the Harlem apartment complex that's home to many politicians including Gov. Paterson and Rep. Charles Rangel. Firefighters found the 50-year-old victim lying dead on the bathroom floor of her 16th floor apartment, according to the Daily News. They said she was hard to reach because her living space was cluttered with junk, what they called "Collyers' mansion" conditions (referring to the famous booby-trapped Harlem house where two pack-rat brothers died among over 100 tons of stuff including books, newspapers, trash and clocks). more ›

Mom-and-pop stores are the main casualty of a huge blaze that overtook a block in Queens Saturday morning. It took 168 firemen to calm the four-alarm fire, which was under control by 1:30 pm. Meanwhile 54 apartments were evacuated in a nearby building. The fire got going at Acme Furniture in Jackson Heights around 10 am, reports NY1; people as far away as Long Island City could see the billowing smoke. It quickly spread down a row of shops on 37th Street to a dry cleaner, a shore repair shop, a liquor store, an art supply store, a packaging store and a purveyor of beauty supplies. "You have a lot of that wood furniture, finishings on the furniture. As it extended to the other stores, other materials got involved and let the fire escalate quickly," said New York Fire Department Deputy Assistant Chief Robert Maynes. more ›

A Buildings Department investigation into the Bensonhurst tenement where a fire killed five has proved what many suspected—that the building was an illegally subdivided death-trap, where escape was nearly impossible. The Daily News says as many as 15 people—all Guatemalan immigrants—were crowded onto its third floor thanks to three illegally-built walls. Since fire escapes were blocked for some units, the only exit was the smoky collapsing stairwell, where the fire was set, allegedly by second-floor resident Daniel Ignacio. more ›

Just before noon a reader wrote in from 6th Avenue and 20th Street saying, "Lots of emergency vehicles. People in the street. Smoke billowing out the north side (20th st.) of the building. 6th ave traffic messed up." Word over the newswire was the fire, at 641 6th Avenue, was sparked by a manhole explosion. Another reader, who works in that building, told us they were evacuated because of a fire in the subway; she also notes a "huge fireball" reached the 5th floor. Con Ed and the FDNY are on the scene. more ›

Yesterday morning, a two-alarm fire tore through the Greenwich village party supply store Village Paper. Over 100 firefighters were able to get the fire under after about an hour—part of the ceiling collapsed, leaving two firefighters with minor injuries—but the store was ruined. Owner Sun Wong spoke to the Daily News while in tears, "I worked so hard for this store, for my family. I'm so sad right now. I have three little ones. What am I going to do now? I feel sick about it." more ›

A "smoking gun memo" obtained by the Village Voice indicates that before being appointed the new commissioner of the FDNY, Salvatore Cassano repeatedly ignored warnings that the Deutsche Bank building—the site of a fatal 2007 blaze—was a safety hazard. According to the alt weekly, the longtime FDNY veteran was briefed on the possible dangers at the 9/11-damaged site, and "was more personally involved than [previous Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta] in the negligence that cost the lives of Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino and injuries to another 115 firefighters." more ›

Amid the snow storm barreling into the NYC region today, firefighters battled a two alarm fire at Village Paper (which one Yelp user described as, "Like [Halloween], Village Paper is colorful, overstimulating, a little creepy, and wonderfully foolish") in Greenwich Village that began after 7 a.m. Readers sent us these photographs of the scene—one said, "There was a huge bang at around 7:10am this morning that sounded like a tire exploding" and that the FDNY was on the scene within minutes. Currently, the fire is under control. more ›

A Brooklyn mom is charged with endangering the lives of her two young sons, after a fire broke out in her East New York apartment yesterday when they were home alone. Milagros Perez left her two-year-old and four-year-old for 25 minutes just before the fire started, officials say. Firefighters were able to find the two boys in the smoky apartment—both were unconscious and not breathing, but now are expected to survive. "When you find somebody, especially a kid, it gets you going," one firefighter told NY1. "It gets the blood flowing and it's pretty exciting. Especially when you get them outside and you are able to bring them back to life." No word on how the fire started. Last week a heroic mom perished in another Brooklyn fire after throwing her two kids from a window and saving them. more ›

Daniel Ignacio, the man accused of setting the fire that killed five Guatemalans in Brooklyn last week, continues to spew about the devil and the evil spirits that prompted the act, from the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital. "It must have been the Devil. It could not have been Jesus Christ," he said "I know I have to face a living hell now and God's judgment later." Still, since allegedly telling cops he lit the fire with a cigarette lighter, he’s changed his story—now he insists it was all an accident, caused by six plus bottles of vodka. And Satan, of course. more ›

Firefighters successfully saved lives for the third time this week when they rescued a Yorkshire Terrier from a burning house in Midwood yesterday morning. After firefighters rescued the dog, Daina Mielnik of Engine Co. 276 performed CPR and, with the help of a man from a nearby animal shelter, gave the dog oxygen. "It was barely breathing," Mielnik tells the Post. "I gave the dog oxygen. It's my first animal rescue. It made me feel great. I love animals. Everyone hates to see an animal in pain." more ›

Daniel Ignacio, the man who reportedly confessed that demonic voices told him to set a Bensonhurst fire that killed five people on Saturday, pleaded not guilty to charges yesterday. But residents say he was actually trying to settle a score with neighbors over a stroller left in the apartment building's hallway. more ›

Despite telling police he set fire to a toilet paper roll near the entrance of the building where five died Saturday, at his arraignment today Daniel Ignacio pleaded not guilty. His lawyer Danielle Eaddy told the AP she doesn't believe statements he made to police will prove an intention to start the fire and that there were problems with how cops obtained his statement. She even suggested that Ignacio acted heroically, adding that he helped save the life of a two-year-old boy by handing him from a window. "He confessed to the arson," a police source told the Post. "He didn't indicate any rational motive." At a prayer service Rev. Erick Salgado relayed an apology from Ignacio to his congretation: "Sorry. It was not intentional. He did not mean to kill nobody," Salgado said. more ›

As though in answer to Bloomberg's proposed cuts to the force, firemen saved three more New Yorkers from fiery deaths. Early this morning a mattress ignited, filling a Bed-Stuy home with smoke and flames and trapping its residents inside. Amid high winds and snow, the FDNY made quick work of the fire, plucking a young girl from the second floor, just before she jumped. "This young girl was hanging out the window screaming, 'Help me! Help me!,'" recalled Joe Fischer, one of the firemen. "She looked like she was going to jump so we had to get to her quickly." more ›

Members of Brooklyn's tight-knit Guatemalan community were shocked to learn that one of their own had admitted to setting the deadly fire that killed five on Saturday. Daniel Ignacio, an ex-con and a bad drunk, told cops he was inebriated when he lit a roll of toilet paper on fire near the entrance of his apartment building and that he was possessed by "demons or devils." Later, the alleged arsonist left the building via a fireman's ladder, helping to save a child that was passed to him through a window, but leaving one of his roommates to perish. “Are you sure he’s Guatemalan?” asked Pedro Ordoñez, uncle of the child's mother, who died in the fire. “It’s painful that this is happening among paisanos.” more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Police are questioning a resident of the Bensonhurst building that burned this weekend killing five Guatemalan immigrants, the AP reports. So far it's unclear whether the suspect in custody is the same captured in video footage released earlier today. Wearing dark clothes, he's shown arriving at the overcrowded building around 2 a.m. with a bag, and rushing from its door at 2:29 a.m. without the bag. Just one minute later someone reported the fire, which killed four men and the mother who tossed her two children from a third-story window. more ›