An unidentified middle-aged man died after a fire engulfed an unused room in the Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street F station. MTA officials believe the man was living in the room, which is located about 150 feet from one of the F train platforms. Firefighters were called to the station around 8:30 last night to investigate reports of smoke in the station. They soon traced the smoke to the room, which the MTA says had been used for communications. more ›

[Update, more videos below] A van burst into flames in front of Foley Square earlier this afternoon, directly in front of the courthouse at 1 Federal Plaza. According to the FDNY the van caught fire at 1:52 p.m. and was put out quickly with no injuries reported. more ›

Early Saturday morning, 22 show horses were killed in a massive barn fire in northern New Jersey. Authorities say the fire, which they believe was an accident, broke out at the Heritage Acres farm in Lafayette; by the time firefighters arrived just before 2 a.m., the barn was already engulfed in flames. The owners, who did not have insurance, are devastated: "We’re just going to sell our property. It was our business and we’re too old to start over," 73-year-old Betty Hahn told the Star-Ledger. more ›

A fire that broke out in a Poughkeepsie home early yesterday morning claimed the lives of two Marist College female students and a male friend. Four other people, two female students who lived in the home and two male students, managed to escape the blaze. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that town police "said one of the Marist male students who was sleeping upstairs awoke at about 1:30 a.m., determined the doorknob of the bedroom door was hot. The student and the female who was in the room with him jumped out the second-floor window to safety." more ›

The Christmas Day house fire that claimed the lives of three little girls and their grandparents is still the focus of a criminal investigation by Connecticut authorities. The Post reports, "Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin said his investigators have talked to several people involved in the work being done on the $1.7 million Stamford home of Manhattan ad exec Madonna Badger." more ›

The Brooklyn man who allegedly confessed to cops that he killed a 73-year-old woman by setting her on fire in a Prospect Heights elevator was arraigned yesterday—and more details about that alleged confession came to light. Police claim that Jerome Isaac boasted at the time of his arrest that he would have gotten away with the murder of Deloris Gillespie if he hadn't turned himself in: “If the video wasn’t there, you would still be looking for me,” he declared, despite having burned half his face during the attack. more ›

A house fire in New Jersey this week led to the arrest of a Pratt professor on charges of endangering the welfare of a child. According to the New Jersey State Police, 76-year-old architecture professor Gamal El-Zoghby was arrested after firefighters battling a blaze in his Eagleswood Township home found child pornography hidden in the ceiling. more ›

A seven-year-old boy was killed, and seven others were injured in a three-alarm fire in a Brooklyn apartment building early this morning. The fire broke out at 1:40 a.m. at a 3-story apartment at 1066 Decatur Street and a neighboring building in Bushwick. According to police, Joel Smith, 7, was found unconscious inside and died at the scene: "There was a lot of smoke coming out of the house and then I saw a shirtless man come out of the house with his son in his arms, his son was dead," witness Johnny Pache told the Post. "He was crying a whole bunch. He put his son in a car near-by while the ambulances showed up." more ›

Not to be all Smokey the Bear about it, but since deadly fires happen most often in the winter months, now is a good time to brush up on some fire safety. We talked to FDNY spokesperson Frank Dwyer recently, and got tips on dealing with fires in different types of city dwellings. After all, how you deal with a fire in your home all depends on what type of home you live in. more ›

Police say that three-alarm fire in a Yonkers apartment building yesterday morning was caused by a marijuana grow house. The Journal News reports, "Twenty-four people, 12 adults and 12 children, from 11 families, including the unidentified suspect, were left homeless following the three-alarm blaze at 81 Van Cortlandt Park Ave." more ›

The Christmas morning fire that ripped through a three-story Victorian home in Stamford, Connecticut, killed three girls—7-year-old twins and their 9-year-old sister—and their grandparents. The home on Shippan Avenue was owned by fashion advertising executive Madonna Badger, who managed to escape the blaze and was overhead screaming, "My whole life is in that house!" more ›

A fire that broke out in the early morning in an exclusive Stamford, Connecticut neighborhood has claimed the lives of three children and two adults. Stamford mayor Michael Pavia told reporters, "It’s a terrible, terrible day for the city of Stamford. There probably has not been a worse Christmas day in the city of Stamford." Update, 12/26: The victims were the three daughters and parents of homeowner Madonna Badger. more ›

The blaze that has been consuming an Elizabeth, NJ warehouse since Wednesday is now at eight alarm (up from 7 alarms yesterday) and authorities think it'll burn through Christmas. Elizabeth Deputy Fire Chief Lathey Wirkus said, "Pieces of it are definitely going to collapse. We’re definitely going to have some catastrophic collapses here." more ›

The firefighter who was severely burned fighting a fire in Crown Heights yesterday morning nearly lost his life while searching for people in a brownstone that was unoccupied. The firefighter, Robert Wiedmann, 38, was with others searching for victims on the top floor when flames suddenly exploded into the front room. Video obtained by a bystander shows him on fire and leaping onto an aerial ladder just as it reaches him. “The firefighter was about to jump," witness Victor Vargas tells the Post. "He was screaming like crazy." more ›

A firefighter is hospitalized in critical but stable condition after sustaining burns over 42 percent of his body while battling a two alarm blaze in Crown Heights this morning. FDNY units responded to the scene around 9 a.m. at 1102 Prospect Place, where a three-story brownstone was engulfed in flames. Here's video of the fire, via Firefighter Nation. (Be warned, the video shows a firefighter engulfed in flames): more ›

Yesterday, a Brooklyn woman was burned alive in the elevator of her Prospect Heights apartment building in a horrific crime that was captured on surveillance video. Police say that they now have a suspect in custody for the murder of 64-year-old Doris Gillespie. The man came into a transit police station close to the apartment building where the attack took place early Sunday morning—he was "reeking of gasoline," according to cops. more ›

The police say a woman died after being set on fire in her Prospect Heights apartment building's elevator yesterday afternoon—and they say her killer was caught on video. According to the Post, the surveillance video shows "the suspect was waiting on the fifth floor and ambushed his victim as the elevator doors opened. He sprayed the woman with a flammable liquid and then set her aflame and ran off, leaving her to die in agony, police said." And a resident said, “She was screaming at the top of her lungs." more ›

Members of the family who were trapped in a Brooklyn row house fire on Thanksgiving are in critical condition in NYC hospitals. According to the Post, 8-month-old Josiah Alexis, his mother Justine Alexis, uncle Jonathan Alexis and his aunt's husband George DeJesus are all at New York Presbyterian Cornell Weill Medical Center with ventilators; the baby's aunt, Jasmine Alexis (twin sister to Justine, wife of DeJesus) is at Jacobi Medical Center. This news comes as fire official described how the fire, started by someone smoking in bed, spread across the President Street home in Park Slope. more ›

A fast-moving fire at a Park Slope row house on left five people were injured, including an 8-month-old baby boy and a man who were in cardiac arrest by the time firefighters reached them. Fire department officials say the blaze, which occurred in a three-story walk-up on President Street between 4th and 5th Avenues, was caused by a smoking in bed. more ›

One person was killed, and four others were injured after a two-alarm fire ripped through a house in Queens early this morning. It took 106 firefighter approximately two hours to stifle the blaze at 61st St. in Woodside. "There was heavy, heavy fire and we had to climb some fences two yards over to get to the back of the building," said firefighter Ronnie Daly of Rescue 4. Once he smashed his way inside, he found an unresponsive 63-year-old man: "He was about 12 feet into the rear bedroom, on the ground, unconscious. It looked like he was trying to get out." more ›

Fire Island property owners whose businesses were destroyed in yesterday's devastating blaze promised that the Island's legendary gay clubs would be back and ready for action this summer. more ›

As you've probably heard, an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will be passing very close to our planet tonight. Don't panic! Even though this is the closest approach by an asteroid of this magnitude that scientists have known about in advance—and if it hit us it would make a crater four miles wide and 1,700 feet deep, creating a shock equivalent to a magnitude seven earthquake—there is no cause for alarm. In this video, a scientist on the government's payroll explains why everything's going to be just fine, addressing humanity from what appears to be a windowless, climate-controlled bunker: more ›