Fire officials said that the fire on West 18th Street that took the lives of five family members was caused by a "juvenile playing with a lighter or matches." The lone survivor, a 10-year-old boy, is in "dire condition," according to the Post. Fire officials have also been urging New Yorkers to check their smoke detectors and make sure they have batteries and are working (landlords are required to install them in apartment buildings, but......

Fire officials say a smoke detector had been unplugged and its battery removed in the Brooklyn apartment where a fire left a 33-year-old man and his 12-year-old nephew dead early yesterday morning. It was second fatal fire from the weekend, after a fire in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood claimed the lives of five family members. Guyanese immigrants Shawn Monderson and nephew Ceimon Fraser had just moved into the apartment last week, because it was closer to......

Photograph of 401 West 18th Street in Manhattan, where a fatal fire claimed five lives, by David Karp/AP Fire officials say that the smoke detector in a 6th floor Chelsea apartment that claimed five lives yesterday morning had been unplugged. The Daily News reports that the "smoke detector did not go off. The battery had been removed and the wires disconnected." A family of six had been living in the apartment: Parents with three......

For the second time in as many days, a residential fire took the lives of New Yorkers, this one taking place in Bushwick. A 33-year-old man and a twelve-year-old boy perished in the fire that broke out in a three-story house just after midnight. EMTs had rushed both to Wyckoff Hospital where they were pronounced dead. It is not clear yet if the two were related or not. Yesterday a fire on the sixth floor......

Six people, including three children, were rushed to the hospital after a fire broke out just after dawn in Chelsea. WCBS is reporting that the victims have died--other sources only list them as injured at this point. The fire started on the sixth floor of a housing complex on 18th Street at 9th Avenue. There is no word yet as to what caused it. Firefighters were forced to shatter windows in the building and were......

Reader Anthony just sent in this image from Cookshop, on the corner of 10th Avenue and 20th Street, saying that "diners with plates in hand abandoned their al fresco dining as thick black choking smoke headed towards the Cookshop." No word yet on whether they returned to settle their bills.......

Rapper 50 Cent has finally broken his silence regarding the fire at his Dix Hills home, which he was allowing his son and ex-girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins, to live in. The NY Post reports that after all these months, 50 Cent has finally met with investigators. This follows an ABC News report on the saga, which began with the fire on May 30th. FIre officials say it's standard to meet with the owner of the home,......

A hot dog cart burst into flames on the Upper East Side yesterday morning, burning up the awning of a Ralph Lauren store, the Post reports. The fire may have been caused by a frayed hose connecting the tank and the cooking area. But we can't rule out foul play from militant vegetarians! Cart worker Alla Ali, 50, tells the Post, "I turned on the hose and lit the fire and 'Boom!' It's hard to......

During an early morning fire on East 93rd Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues yesterday, an elderly wheelchair-bound woman and her son died. The victims, 89-year-old Anna Roberts and 65-year-old retired postal worker William Roberts, were longtime residents in an rent-controlled unit; a neighbor, who escaped by going to the roof and climbing to another building's roof, told the Post, "I had a hard time getting out, so I could imagine they had a real......

Last night around 10 p.m., a fire broke out in a row of stores in East Tremont and grew to be a huge five-alarm blaze. More than 200 firefighters worked to put it out by 1 a.m. No civilians were hurt, but a few firefighters were injured. It's unclear what caused the fire.......

A fire at an apartment building on Lincoln Road grew to 6 alarms, requiring about 250 firefighters to help put it out. First reported just before 6 p.m., the fire broke out "in the space between the building's roof and the ceiling of the top floor." Firefighters had to cut holes in the roof to let smoke escape, and the top floor appeared to be completely destroyed. Residents were given shelter at a nearby school;......

Yesterday afternoon, an apparently gas explosion caused a fireball and shook a Flushing apartment building. The fire injured 17 people, including a 2-year-old and her father were were critically injured. A resident told the NY Times, “I saw the man, who was burnt from head to toe. His clothes were burnt and he was screaming, and he said, ‘Save my baby!’” The man was identified as Edgar Zalbumbide, who lost 75% of his skin. The......

A reader has just sent word that a "van just exploded into a fireball, a door flew off and hit a cop car. No one was inside." The tipster, who emailed this photo, tells us this is happened on 38th Street and Lexington Avenue. When pressed for more details, he replied, "I got nothing to offer man. Here's to Fridays! Have a good one." More on this as it comes in, but last year, cabs......

Doormen noticed a townhouse on West 73rd Street was on fire and ran across the street to alert the residents. WCBS 2 reports that one resident is grateful, noting how the room she was just in exploded soon after. Eight firefighters and one civilian had minor injuries and it's unclear what caused the blaze. Another resident, whose belongings were destroyed and cat was killed, suspects it's the wiring, saying the building's landlord/owner "refused to fix......

The Fire Department says Tuesday night's two-alarm fire that left a man and a 6-year-old child dead and others injured was caused by someone using rubbing alcohol near a candle--the candle ignited the alcohol's fumes. Here are the FDNY's fire safety tips, which also include some tips for the summer.......

A two-alarm fire broke out at a 6-floor apartment building on West 148th Street and Riverside Drive around 8:40 p.m., and a man and a 5- or 6-year-old boy died after jumping from the sixth floor. The man, believed to be the boy's godfather, was pronounced dead at the scene while the boy apparently went into cardiac arrest and died at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief John Scudnik said they couldn't get to the......

Authorities believe 5-year-old Jay "Tito" Morales set fire to his grandmother's apartment in an act of revenge, because she wouldn't let him go to the park. Now the child is in critical condition after suffering third-degree burns over 70-90% of his body. Morales' grandmother Nancy Herrera often baby-sat him in her Bushwick home on Knickerbocker Avenue. Described as strict, Herrera apparently punished Jay after a stunt where he called 911 and said she had died--only......

Yesterday morning, firefighter Eddie Bohan was driving on the Northern State Parkway on his day off when he saw an SUV on fire. Bohan broke into the car and pulled out the driver, 58-year-old John Collymore, who had crashed into a lightpole. The firefighter, assigned to Engine 44 on the UES, first tried to his elbow to break into the vehicle, but ended up taking a metal mile marker to smash the glass. Collymore's daughter......

An early morning two-alarm fire in an apartment building at 1001 Ocean Avenue (near Newkirk) in Brooklyn injured several residents. WABC 7 reports seven members of the same family were seriously injured--two children suffered first- and second-degree burns--and a "pregnant woman and a 56-year-old man" jumped from the second floor. Some firefighters were also injured in the blaze.......

Last night around 10:50 p.m., heavy smoke was reported at the landmark James A Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue. Dozens of people were evacuated as the city's only 24-hour postal service branch was shut down so firefighters could locate the cause. ...

Approximately 100 people marched from the under-deconstruction Deutsche Bank building yesterday to City Hall Park, demanding stricter safety standards at construction sites. Some of the leaders of the march were Joseph Graffagnino Sr. and his wife, the parents of one of two firefighters (Graffagnino Jr. and Robert Beddia) who died when the Deutsche Bank building caught fire, and because of a lack of adherence to fire and building safety codes they ran out of oxygen......

Investigators looking for the cause in Sunday's fatal Queens fire now suspect that the ex-girlfriend of the most recent victim may have started the fire. It is believed Agnes Bermudez doused William Salazar with an accelerant, possibly carpet cleaner. Salazar died from his injuries yesterday. Video showed Salazar and Bermudez both on fire. Bermudez, a 48-year-old former stock trader, had recently broken up with Salazar and, according to family members, the split was an amicable......

Two men were found dead when firefighters arrived to battle a fire in the Tompkinsville section of Staten Island. The fire at a vacant building was so intense that it took firefighters two hours to get it under control. The fire looks suspicious, and the authorities are investigating whether the men died before or during the fire. Additionally, the building is one of three that was given the go-ahead for demolition last month by the......

The fire in a three-story building that killed one yesterday morning has claimed two more deaths. A 58-year-old man was in an apartment, dead of smoke inhalation and his wife and 20-year-old son died later at a hospital. According to the Post, FDNY believe the fire is suspicious; it "broke out between the second and third floors of a building in Middle Village, Queens--"not near any electrical outlets." Five others were seriously injured, including one......

Early this morning, a fire ripped through a three story building with a store on the ground floor and apartments above. There has been one reported fatality so far, with three people critically injured and four more residents seriously injured. The proprietor of the ground floor deli said two people ran onto his store while on fire. He was able to douse them with water The seven injured survivors have all been hospitalized. Witnesses described......

After the roof over her head burned to the ground, Shaniqua Tompkins found herself in court where a Manhattan judge ruled that she owes Fifty Cent $4,500 for May rent that she never paid (previously a judge ruled she owed double that for past due rents). The NY Post reports that she has until Friday to come up with the cash."She better pay it by the end of the week. Do you understand?" Edmead told......

Earlier this year it was reported that 50 Cent wanted his ex-girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins, and their son out of his Dix Hills, Long Island home (a wish he had enforced by a judge). While 50 didn't live there, the deed is in his name, and he pays Tompkins $6,700 a month, including cash for her to find a new home for their son and her boyfriend (who has been living under the rapper's roof). Now......

Who do you sue when you get badly burned after lighting your cigarette with a stove's burner? Well, if you're Staten Island resident Joel Lederman, you'll sue Macy's because it sold a dangerous shirt. The Staten Island Advance reports that Lederman filed a lawsuit against Macy's for selling a "light-blue, 100-percent cotton Club Room by Charter Club T-shirt " which had a chemical finish that "behaved as an accelerant." The lawsuit claims the shirt was......

A 7-year-old Manhattan boy is hospitalized today with burns over 70% of his body after an attempt to make S'mores in a Murray Hill basement went horribly wrong. As opposed to the usual case of youthful misadventure, responsibility for the boys injuries appears to lie with a supervising parent, who allegedly threw a volatile flammable liquid on an open flame, which exploded in the boy's face. The boy was roasting S'mores with a friend on......

Scaremongering just hit a whole new level underground, with Subivor -- the subway survival kit. The website (after a short video montage of all the ways the subway will ultimately become your tomb) warns straphangers:Dear Subway Commuters, Did you know that there are hundreds of subway related fires that occur each year? Did you know that there are 27,817 structural fires that occur each year, that's an average of 2,318 per month?And there's always......