Results tagged “housefire”

Earlier this morning, a fire engulfed a house at 3916 Avenue K in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Firefighters found two men dead inside, but 1010 WINS reports that the FNDY is "looking for more possible victims as it was reported there were other people living in the house." Two passers-by and a neighbor knocked down a door, but the flames were too great. They also tried to convince the home's residents to jump, but were unsuccessful. Anthony Deloid told WCBS 2, "They were screaming 'Lord please help me. Lord please help me.' It was him and a woman screaming. I told them to jump. They wouldn't jump. They had a chance to jump, but they wouldn't," while neighbor Kissoondial Bissoondial said, "I hear a lady was asking 'Help me. Help me.' So I kicked the door down. Me and another guy kicked the door down. We tell them to run out, that the door was open, but I didn't see anyone run out."

A seventeen-year FDNY veteran died while battling a blaze on Staten Island early this morning. At around 12:30 a.m., Lieutenant Robert Ryan was leading the first unit to respond to a fire in a two-story home on Van Buren Street in New Brighton when his mask and air supply were knocked off by pieces of the ceiling that began coming down as it collapsed. The fire was not deemed suspicious and appears to have been the result of faulty wiring in the house's attic.

The 9 year-old boy who perished in a house fire on Staten Island late Sunday apparently died while trying to save his pets. Tommy Monahan apparently had been with his mother as they tried to escape the fire, but he raced back to his room for his dog, lizard and fish. A 12-year-old neighbor told the Daily News, "Everybody thought he was outside but he wasn't.

THEATER: It’s Friday night, and what better way to cut loose than an evening of interactive theater – set in plague-ravaged New York City! In All Fall Down, a savage battle rages for the dwindling supplies of the vaccine, but soon a question arises: "Is the cure worse than the disease?" Theatre Recrudescence vows to explore our “post 9/11 hysteria with elements of carnival, clowning and rock and roll.” (All Fall Down is in previews, so there are no reviews; we'll have to take them on their word that the show “includes the audience, but doesn't embarrass them.”) - John Del Signore

1. The feds won't institute guidelines for September 11-related autopsies
2. The children saved by their mom from a Brooklyn house fire are doing well; the mom, though, has undergone surgery for second and third degree burns
3. The upstate mom who went clubbing with her daughter and daughter's friend and then drove drunk, killing the friend and seriously injuring another driver, was indicted for murder
4. Mayor Bloomberg kinds hates Manhattan Beep Scott Stringer
5. $20 City Councilman Vallone is distributing this to his constituents
6. The Goya en route from Ohio to the Guggenheim was stolen outside a Howard Johnson Inn! Was the "professional art transporter" distracted by the fried clams? And the thief (or thieves) had insider knowledge!

THEATER: The MoMA Dada exhibition ends Monday, and if you haven't gone yet here's even greater incentive to beat the deadline. Kate Valk, Scott Shepherd and Ari Fliakos of the Wooster Group are performing just three times at the museum in Who's Your DADA?!. This trio last mesmerized audiences in Emperor Jones and we're very curious to see what they do with original Dada materials. (The MoMA website tantalizingly mentions the appearance of "special guests". Buscemi? Dafoe? McDermott?) - John Del Signore

- And Mayor Bloomberg is giving the convocation speech at the University of Chicago on June 10; we point this out because while Mayor Bloomberg claims he doesn't want to run for president, it's unusual for UChicago to have a non-faculty speaker (there was Bill Clinton, but he was President, and Kay Graham, but she was the publisher of the Washington Post and a big donor)... maybe Mayor Bling is donating some money or looking to take advantage of midwest media affiliates

Even though the Fire Department had been under scrutiny over the kind of ropes firefighters were supplied after the two on-the-job deaths and other injuries during a 2005 call in the Bronx (like the fact that the FDNY didn't supply escape ropes, leaving fire hydrants frozen and unusable or enough training), it seems that the Bronx DA feels that the people whose apartments were on fire are at fault. The tenants who lived at 236 East 178th Street was indicted for the deaths, along with the building's owner. Tenants Rafael Castillo and Caridad Coste had illegally subdivided their three-bedroom apartments into five bedrooms, and Castillo's third floor apartment also had an overloaded electrical outlet and plasterboard partitions that apparently blocked the firefighters' exits. Castillo, a livery cabdriver, had rented out the rooms; his lawyer said Castillo shouldn't be at fault, claiming that the fire did not start in his apartment and because the firefighters didn't jump from his apartment - plus the fact that the firefighters were underprepared.

The story about the Queens fire just gets sadder: Along with an elderly neighbor, three of Jennifer Gaston's children died in a dramatic Queens house fire. And Gaston's 8 year old son admitted starting the fire with a butane lighter. The Admistration for Children's Services asked Gaston to leave her two other children in temporary custody, but Gaston became hysterical. The ACS had received earlier, though unfounded, reports about Gaston, and neighbors are saying that Gaston didn't save her two surviving chlidren, as one was apparently at a friend's house.