The Union Square apartment of Tony award-winning actress Elizabeth Ashley went up in smoke yesterday morning when a cigarette she left behind sparked a four-alarm blaze, fire authorities said.
Among the items saved from the 60-year-old stage actress’ residence was a partly burned duffel bag containing $10,000 in cash, officials said.
No residents were hurt in the blaze at 31 Union Square West, but two firefighters suffered minor injuries.
Ashley left her building to buy newspapers and have breakfast – and returned to find her 10th-floor residence ablaze, her publicist and fire officials said.
Scores of residents in the 16-story building were forced to flee as 190 firefighters battled for an hour to bring the blaze under control.
Ashley’s apartment was “completely disintegrated, a total loss,” her publicist said in a statement.
“Nothing was left. Photographs, personal items, clothes – all were destroyed.”
Other apartments on the 10th and 11th floors sustained water and smoke damage, authorities said.
Damage to the building’s water pipes forced the Blue Water Grill, a trendy street-level restaurant, to close for lunch.
Fire marshals say it appears a smoldering cigarette in a trash can in Ashley’s kitchen caused the 9:38 a.m. fire.
Ashley could not be reached for comment. Her publicist said she was staying with friends.
Ashley won a Tony for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal as Mollie Michaelson in “Take Her, She’s Mine,” opposite Art Carney, in 1962.
She also scored rave reviews some 20 years ago as Maggie in a revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
She is scheduled to return to the New York stage in December in “If Memory Serves,” a comedy about an aging TV star trying to revive her sagging career.
Ashley recently guest-starred on the premier episode of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” as the mom of the lead female detective, played by Mariska Hargitay.