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 ›

Last week, a reader wrote us to relate her bedbug tale of woe—she claimed that a mattress protector pad from Sleepy's came with a side dish of two bedbugs, and that Sleepy's had been uncooperative with her appeals to pay for fumigating her apartment. But it seems the reader's attempts to "apply some external pressure" onto the company worked—as we heard straight from the mouth of Sleepy's COO, Adam Blank: "She has been taken care of completely, and now she's a happy Sleepy's customer." more ›

The FDNY says the Monday afternoon fire that claimed the lives of a man and two of his daughters was started by a five-year-old child playing with a lighter. A mattress caught fire in the Bushwick two-family home on Putnam Avenue—according to the NY Times, "Some of the building’s residents tried to put the fire out before calling 911 by dragging the burning mattress to a lower floor." more ›

Sorry, spray painting "Bed Bugs" across your infested mattress isn't going to cut it anymore. In a futile flanking maneuver in the bloody Bedbug War of 2008-???, the Department of Sanitation is requiring anyone throwing out box springs or mattresses to fully seal them in plastic bags before putting them on the street. Starting on December 3rd, not covering your mattress will result in a $100 fine. Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty says it's mainly to protect workers from the bugs, but also to stop the spread of bedbugs around the city. As if that'll stop them—they're already feasting on our political leaders. Which, actually, is cool with us. more ›

Bed bugs are unnerving and disgusting to even contemplate. Which is probably why public housing building cleaner Miriam Ortiz decided to set fire to a mattress she suspected might be infested with bedbugs. But it's also a public safety hazard. The Daily News reports the 36-year-old was hit with "felony arson and reckless endangerment charges... for the Sept. 8 blaze in the Manhattanville houses." A source said she had a "fear of bedbugs" and was lazy—instead of disposing of the mattress properly (we imagine it'd involving wrapping it with plastic and bringing to the trash), she just used a lighter to destroy the mattress in a "partially-enclosed hallway" on the 10th floor of one of the buildings. more ›

Brooklyn-based artist Glenda Reed contacted us this morning explaining that she's embarking on an art project and working with a new medium: bread. There's just one giant problem; she explains: more ›

Reader ccwhite sent us this photograph, and we chuckled. We're also hoping that someone just decided to add some artistic flair to a discarded box spring, because bed bugged items should be discarded in plastic (see this PDF from the city). And in case you were wondering, pouring gasoline on your mattress is not the way to get rid of bed bugs. more ›

There are many different strategies for ridding your apartment of bed bugs. Experts recommend dry cleaning your clothes and keeping them in sealed plastic bags, and hiring an exterminator. But there's one radical method for battling the parasites that has the FDNY rather alarmed: Some bed bug victims are pouring gasoline or kerosene on their mattresses. The FDNY says that's not only ineffective, but also dangerous, because mattresses really shouldn't be flammable. Yet it appears that Astoria residents are not only gassing up their beds, but their bodies, too. more ›

A Bronx renter stabbed his landlord to death after an argument about a spare mattress on Tuesday, according to police. The brutal crime occurred after suspect Omari Richards, 26, got into an argument with his landlord's fiancee over a spare mattress, the Daily News reports. Apparently, when the woman told Richards he couldn't use the spare bed because she needed it for her son, the suspect got angry and started shouting. "I heard [him] saying, 'She's a f------ liar,'" the fiancee said. more ›

The Brooklyn fire that killed FDNY Lt. John H. Martinson was caused by a six-year-old child who was playing with wrapping or packaging paper over the open flames of a stove left on to heat a 14th floor apartment. When the paper caught fire, the boy attempted to hide the smoldering paper under a mattress, trailing embers throughout the apartment. When the child's mother discovered the bedroom in flames, she grabbed the six-year-old and his twin brother and fled from the building. The door to the apartment was left open, however, allowing billowing smoke to fill the hallway. more ›