Ten people injured in two separate NYC fires
A five-alarm fire that looked like a “volcano erupting” left nine people hurt and more than 100 residents in Hamilton Heights displaced, witnesses and officials said.
The flames broke out around 1:35 a.m. Saturday in an apartment building at 617 West 141st Street, the FDNY said.
Photos show the roof of the six-story building completely gone after the fire was finally extinguished shortly after 6 a.m.
Juan Galan, 40, a housekeeping supervisor who lives on the second floor with his wife and 14-month-old daughter, woke up to smoke in his apartment and saw through his front door peephole firefighters dragging the hose up the stairs.
He woke up his wife and they grabbed the baby and ran to safety.
“I’m just lost, I’m just stunned,” Galan told The Post. “Thank God she [his daughter] is all right. Everyone is doing good…It was enormous. I’ve never seen anything like that. It was like a movie scene where a bomb went off. The entire roof was on fire.”
Another resident who lived on the now destroyed sixth floor with his mom, dad and three sisters said the smell of gas woke them up.
“Every smelled gas they started leaving. The whole top floor was covered in smoke. At first it was light smoke. When the fire started the smoke turned dark,” said the 18-year-old said, who did not want to be named. He added, “My apartment is burnt out,” he said looking and pointing to an apartment on the six floor. The top is gone on the whole top floor. …The fire made it to our apartment … It was big, it looked like a volcano erupting. It was a strong fire.”
Seven residents and two firefighters suffered minor injuries, officials said.
FDNY Chief of Department John Hodgens said that seven apartments on the top floor of the building “were affected by fire” and when flames get in the cockloft, the area between the roof and an apartment’s ceiling.
A heartbroken Tiffany, 25, who lives on the fifth floor with her daughter, mother, sister and her nephew, said, “We lost everything. That’s twenty-five years worth of living there. I was scared. I was staring at it from outside. It was crazy.”
FDNY Chief Hodgens said there was extensive damage throughout the building, including lower apartments that were impacted by the amount of water used by firefighters to extinguish the blaze.
The Red Cross was assisting any displaced residents, the FDNY said. The cause of the fire is under investigation, officials said.
In all, 109 people, or 37 families, were forced out, said the Red Cross, which set up an emergency assistance center at nearby PS 192.
Less than 30 minutes after the Manhattan blaze, fire broke out on the third-floor of a six-story building at 7420 Ridge Blvd. in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, officials said. One unidentified person was taken to Kings County Hospital in critical condition, the FDNY said. The blaze, which was brought under control shortly after 2:40 a.m., is under investigation.