Flammable Paint Causes Bronx Apartment Fire to Spread Quickly

A man was critically injured when he tried to escape a fire in his Bronx apartment building yesterday afternoon. The man had climbed out his fifth floor bathroom window and tried to make his way down a cable that broke. The fire was started by a lit cigarette on the lobby couch; the NY Times reports that the flammable paint on the building's walls caused it to spread. A firefighter said, "The paint on the stair corridor flashed pretty quickly," with flames on each of the building's six floors.

The Times also mentioned that flammable paint "was once common.": "It has been blamed for similar fast-moving fires in stairwells, including one in a Bronx housing project in 1996 that roared up 11 floors, and two others in public housing buildings in 1995, each resulting in a fatality." We dug back and found the NY Times story from 1996 - even though the housing project's newest paint job was with fire-retardant paint, a fire still ignited the layers of flammable paint underneath!

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By Jen Chung in News on December 18, 2006 10:40 AM

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bobo

A building, in and of itself, may be "non-combustible". But everything in it is. Rugs. Paint. Furniture. Anything made of plastic's. If it's synthetic it will go up like gasoline. I've been a firefighter for 25 years. When it ignites you have seconds to get out. When one object ignites (say a couch) the room will heat to over 1000 degrees within a minute and a half (proven). When you have a stairway fire, the stairs create a chimney, heating everything above it. It explodes rapidly in fire. Remember basic science - for fire - you need heat, fuel, and Oxygen. You don't need a match.

Sad in the BX

I don't know if it's a question of right or wrong or just a question of style. BUT here's a thought rather then being greedy and building so many new building in the "Already-Over-Crowed-Bronx" why not capitalize on what's already there...and falling apart.

Are you confused? Well let me help you out in the last year there has been a total rehabilitation in the Bronx. 60% of the vacant lots have turned into a six, seven and eight story low to moderate income apartment buildings (not a complaint because YES the land is being utilized efficiently) However, why the hell is their so much money being spent on building all these new buildings in the Bronx without supporting facilities like ahhh Schools!!! Hospital!!! How about some enhancements to rubbish that one is forced to call home? Like ahh non-flammable paint!!! Landscaping!!!