Results tagged “fire”

While it was previously reported that crack pipes were found in former Knick Dean Meminger's rented room in the Bronx, the NY Post spoke to an FDNY source who said, "We have not found a crack pipe in his room," though the source did acknowledge "at least one crack pipe was found in the building." A four-alarm fire started in the SRO—and later spread to other buildings— and Meminger was found unconscious by firefighters. He is recovering in a burn unit.

Firefighters recovered the remains of two men from a burning van in Sunset Park last night. The victims — whose names have not yet been released — were apparently homeless and lived in the van, which had been parked near the Gowanus Expressway at the corner of 45th Street and Third Avenue for two years, according to neighbors. Investigators told the Times it's possible that the men, who were pronounced dead at the scene, had set a fire to keep warm. Last winter, a homeless man was found burnt to death in Owls Head Park, just 20 blocks away from yesterday's Sunset Park blaze. In that instance, police surmised that the victim had surrounded himself with candles to keep warm.

Just days after a student was suspended from Stuyvesant High School for allegedly setting fires, investigators say a copycat arsonist has been lighting blazes in the esteemed Lower Manhattan school — and taunting police in hieroglyphics.

Dean Meminger, the former Knicks great nicknamed "The Dream," is in a burn unit at Jacobi Hospital after suffering injuries from a four-alarm fire in the Bronx. The Fire Department is continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze, after reports that crack pipes were found in a building where the fire was started—and some of the crack pipes may have been in Meminger's rented room.

A fire broke out in a Bronx home last night around 9:20 p.m. and quickly spread to neighboring homes, becoming a four-alarm blaze. Ultimately, it took over 200 firefighters and three hours to put out the fire on Findlay Avenue in the Claremont section. Now 45 people (and one cat) are left homeless.

A 16-year-old Stuyvesant High School student was caught on camera setting two fires in school bathrooms this week, according to police. Cops arrested junior Mohammed Hassan after obtaining surveillance tapes that apparently show the teen entering a seventh-floor bathroom at 1:13 pm and leaving two minutes later as a trash can went up in flames. At 1:16 pm, a different camera purportedly captures Hassan entering and quickly exiting another bathroom, leaving "bright orange and yellow flames rising out of a large garbage can," according to investigators quoted by the Daily News.

After 911 operators mistakenly dispatched firefighters to the wrong addresses in response to at least two fatal fires, the NYPD and FDNY announced that they will alter the city's emergency phone-answering system. Police phone operators will still respond to all 911 calls — continuing the so-called "Unified Call Taking System" which was launched in May — but when a caller reports a fire, the operator will electronically transmit the data to the FDNY and an FDNY official will have the chance "to listen in on the emergency fire calls and ask additional questions," according to the Post.

Yesterday, a fire in a Crown Heights apartment building killed a man, 42, and his two young sons, ages 2 and 1. While the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, fire officials said incense had been burned in the bedroom (where the fire began) and that there were no smoke detectors in the home.

A fire broke out in a six-story Crown Heights apartment building earlier today, killing three. Officials told CBS 2 reports that, "firefighters were called to a blaze that broke out in the Crown Heights section of the borough at 654 St. Marks Ave. at Rogers Ave. about 1:30 p.m. Two children, ages, 2 and 3, along with a 45-year-old man were pronounced dead at the scene." The names of the victims have not yet been released, and the cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

A 75-year-old man perished in a Queens house fire yesterday when he ran back into the blaze to get his cellphone. Air Force veteran Nathan Lagree had already helped his wife and his eight-months-pregnant daughter escape from their single-family home in Springfield Gardens at around 6:20 am when he realized he forgot his phone.

A mother of two was set on fire in the doorway of her Long Island City apartment yesterday morning by her estranged boyfriend and father of one of the children. Neighbors in the woman's Queensbridge Houses building say the woman had previously thrown the suspect, 25-year-old Kehman Clark, out of the home. He returned to visit yesterday morning, but stormed off after a domestic dispute, only to return with a can of gasoline.

When firefighters arrived at an apartment on 138th Street on Aug. 18, they were expecting to find a broken water pipe — not a pregnant woman whose water had just broken. In a 911 dispatching gaffe, an operator classified a call about a woman going into labor as a water leak and sent out Ladder Co. 28 "armed with hooks, wrenches and flashlights but no medical gear," the Post reports.

As debate continues over whether a fire dispatcher's typo led to three deaths and four injuries in a Woodside, Queens home on Saturday, it turns out the basement apartments where the victims lived had been eyed by the Department of Buildings before. According to the Daily News, the two-family home "had been illegally converted into a five-family residence with another seven single rooms"—but when the DOB inspected it in 1990 and 2004, they found nothing wrong!

Firefighters responding to a deadly Woodside fire that killed three and injured four in an illegal basement apartment yesterday could have arrived sooner — had they not been routed to the wrong address first. A 911 operator mistakenly entered a two instead of a five and sent Engine Company 292 and Rescue Company 4 on a "wild goose chase" to 62nd Street instead of 65th Street, a delay that cost firefighters about 2 minutes and 30 seconds, according to the fire union.

A fire claimed the lives of three men and critically injured four others when it ripped through an illegal basement apartment this morning in Woodside, Queens. The blaze broke out in the two-story home's improperly partitioned basement at around 2:45 am, according to the Daily News. When firefighters arrived at the "chaotic scene," they discovered "badly-burned victims" on the "front sidewalk, just inside the front door and beneath a basement window." The surviving victims were taken to the New York Hospital-Cornell Burn Center. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Firefighters are investigating the cause of a blaze that killed a woman in an apartment at 250 West 104th Street yesterday before 6 p.m. The Post reports the woman's mother attempted to rescue her 48-year-old daughter but the daughter's bedroom was "mysteriously blockaded, according to neighbors who responded to the mom's cries for help." (NY1 says the door was blocked with suitcases.) The daughter died of smoke inhalation; more than 60 firefighters fought the fire.

In what must be the least surprising news item of the day, the law firm that was planning on hiring Brian Schroeder — the 26-year-old Harvard Law School grad suspected of setting a fire in a chapel containing the remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — has revoked its offer. The firm Sidley Austin recanted on its decision to hire Schroeder, who turned himself in to police after setting a blaze on Saturday morning that destroyed flowers, photos, and other mementos inside Memorial Park on the corner of First Avenue and East 30th Street. According to cops, he set the fire on a drunk dare, but Schroeder's attorney claims the Texas native, who moved to New York to accept the law job, had been drugged.

The Harvard Law School grad suspected of setting a fire inside a memorial for unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks claims he was drugged before he torched the shrine. A lawyer representing 26-year-old Brian Schroeder said someone might have "put something in his drink" before the 26-year-old Ivy Leaguer — who moved to New York to accept a job at a law firm — set a blaze that destroyed flowers, notes, photos, and other mementos inside Memorial Park at First Avenue and East 30th Street. In fact, the attorney claims that Schroeder didn't realize he was setting a fire in a 9/11 memorial, "although police sources said he made sure to gather many of the teddy bears left by victims' families to start the fire," according to the Post.

Owners of 14 businesses destroyed by a five-alarm fire on Saturday may get a hand from the city—the city's Department of Small Business Services emergency response unit has been meeting with them, according to the Daily News. The agency said, "Our team is helping these businesses obtain copies of permits/licenses consumed by the fire, expedite [Fire Department] reports required for insurance claims as well as connecting them to other N.Y.C. Business Solutions services."

Yesterday's five-alarm fire has devastated the owners of 14 businesses along Bainbridge Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx. Mahmoud Zaghari, whose brother's convenience store was ruined, told WCBS 2, "All our money was in this store, all our investment was in this store, and in two, three hours, nothing - that's it."

Firefighters have been fighting a 5-alarm fire at 3105 Bainbridge Avenue off East 204th Street in the Bronx. WCBS 2 reports, "Though firefighters arrived shortly after 3 a.m. to find only heavy smoke, it quickly turned into a conflagration. The fire could be seen for blocks, and smelled for miles."

The daughter of a 44-year-old construction-safety inspector who was killed in a suspicious Flushing apartment fire earlier this week is vowing to continue her mother’s fight in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed months before her death.

A 44-year-old mother of two died and three others were critically injured by a fire that tore through a Flushing apartment early Sunday morning. The deceased, Bianca Wisniewski, was due in federal court today for a hearing in her $20 million sexual-harassment lawsuit against Total Safety Consulting and JPMorgan Chase. Four of the 110 firefighters at the scene suffered minor injuries, and the fire was ultimately contained to the single apartment, because the cement and steel walls stopped it from spreading.

After a campaign to get 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan to join Twitter, he has finally joined—"His rep confirmed to Gossip Cop that he signed up this morning." His Twitter handle: RealTracyMorgan. First Tweet: "Welcome To Tracy Morgans World..." Aw, yeah—maybe now he can Twitter about his fish tanks (like imagine the Tweets he would have sent when they caught fire!) and whatever else pops into his mind.

The good folks at NY1 didn't have to think too hard when it came to their "New Yorker of The Week" this week. The honor went to Horia (Billy) Cretan, the electronics store owner who ran into a burning building in the Bronx to save a 4-year-old boy on Wednesday. Cretan recounted his time with the boy as he held him, saying, "I said, 'Stay there and just keep your head up and make sure you breathe. No matter what you do don't go nowhere, you are going to be fine.'" And as if there's any question this guy is basically the most admirable man in the galaxy right now, he settled it by quickly changing the subject from his rescue and saying, "I hope somebody will come forward to help these families that suffered damage." Cretan was also honored yesterday by Bronx Beep Ruben Diaz Jr.

Yay! Upon hearing screams from a Bronx building, a stranger ran up a fire escape, kicked in the window of a burning apartment and rescued a 4-year-old boy. Horia Cretan said, "I heard somebody scream, I didn't know what was happening outside. I looked up and just couldn't see nothing, there was too much smoke. I just kicked in--I kicked in gear. I put the ladder down, I went upstairs, I did the best I could."

The 8th annual Tunnel To Towers Run is being held today, even in spite of the rainy conditions. The 5K run/walk is in tribute to firefighter Stephen Siller: On September 11 2001, he decided to run through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, wearing 70 pounds of firefighting gear, to the World Trade Center and help; he died in the attacks. The race starts at the Gowanus approach to the BBT and enters Manhattan on West Street.

Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a three-alarm fire in Springfield Gardens yesterday that tore through a corner bodega, a metal and glass company, and a car service business. [NY1]

A fire broke out at a warehouse, located at 27th Street and 50th Avenue, just before 6 a.m. and has grown into a three-alarm blaze. The smoke has been so heavy that all westbound Long Island Expressway lanes were shut down temporarily—they have since reopened but there are still delays near the Queens Midtown Tunnel. According to MyFoxNY, "NY Traffic Authority Ines Rosales recommends drivers in the area take the 59th Street Bridge or get off on Queens Boulevard and take the Queens Borough Bridge." And firefighters are still working to get the fire under control.

FDNY officials have confirmed that no one was injured in yesterday morning's spectacular taxi fire, but they have yet to determine the inferno's cause. According to the Post, a passenger was in the cab when it ignited around 9:30 a.m., while stopped at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 53rd Street. Apparently, the cabby pulled over at the light because his meter had stopped running, and both escaped the 2007 Ford Crown Victoria as it burst into flames.