Bronx apartment fire leaves 7 hurt, more than 250 displaced
NEW YORK -- A five-alarm fire broke out early Friday morning in the Bronx, leaving seven people hurt and more than 250 needing shelter and emergency assistance.
Firefighters responded around 1:45 a.m. to a six-story apartment building at 2910 Wallace Avenue in the Allerton section of the borough. Once crews arrived, they determined the fire was coming from the top floor of the building. Within an hour, it quickly grew to five alarms.
Crews spent hours trying to get the intense flames and smoke under control, but officials said the roof and all the apartments on the top floor were destroyed, and water damaged every other unit.
"Initially, we had fire companies inside conducting searches, removing people and attempting to fight the fire. The fire had too much headway, extremely dangerous for our firefighters. We removed them from the building and, you can see behind us, we're using tower ladders to extinguish the rest of the building, and we're continuing with that operation," one fire official said.
Officials said the cold and windy conditions made it more difficult to fight the stubborn flames.
"This was a massive fire, and the wind played a major role in the conditions that we are facing," New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters on the scene.
"It's been a very long and cold morning here in the Bronx," FDNY Commissioner Ben Tucker added. "This was a very, very large fire, wind-driven, as the mayor said. Very difficult fire for our firefighters to fight under conditions that caused us to have to have lots of relief."
Five firefighters and two residents suffered minor injuries, and five of the victims were taken to area hospitals for treatment, according to the FDNY.
"Please pray for your neighbors here in Allerton. We know that these fires are happening far too often across our city, and we will do our very best to make sure that we protect New Yorkers during their time of need," said Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson.
The Department of Buildings has issued a full vacate order and ordered the construction of a sidewalk shed around the building.
"This is like hitting rock bottom"
Residents who lost everything are now trying to figure out what they will do for food and shelter. Many ran out of their apartments in the cold with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
"This is like hitting rock bottom, to be honest. It's starting from zero," said Jarixa Guzman, a mother of four whose family lost their cats in the fire.
"It was just one place, it was one apartment, it was very small in front of the building. Then out of nowhere, it became a nightmare. I didn't see everything that was happening, I just saw a lot of black smoke," resident Nicole Novoa said. "I don't even know how to feel right now, it's just so many different emotions. Thank God I'm alive, honestly, and I'm in one piece."
The city's Office of Emergency Management directed residents to P.S. 76 on Adee Avenue, where the Red Cross was ready to help those displaced or in need of assistance. The organization says it has registered 95 households with a total of 262 people.
Friday night, neighbors stopped by the school to drop off donations.
"I just felt like it was right in my heart to donate to these people, and I feel so bad, you know. After the holidays and settling in after the new year, this is just an awful thing that happened to the community," neighbor Kayla Ravagnan said.
The Red Cross will be back at P.S. 76 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday to help any families that may still need assistance.
"We got more help from them in a couple of hours than we ever did with our landlord," fire victim Ricardine Bernard said.
Bronx residents say building had problems with heat
Novoa said there has been little-to-no heat at the apartment building for about three years.
"There's days that you wake up and there's no hot water or there's no heating. I work from home and I work with a coat on, it's freezing," she said. "We have a lot of electricity problems and we also don't have no heating. So a lot of us do have space heaters on, so I'm sure that's part of the reason that it triggered it."
Guzman said wiring was an issue, too.
"'Cause there's not even a breaker box. It's a fuse, like the little screw-in types," she said.
The mayor and fire commissioner told reporters they were not aware of the complaints about the heat, but vowed to get answers for the residents.
"We are going to have DOB and other city agencies look into if there's a chronic issue. Going to look at if there are 311 calls that were made, what follow-up was conducted. And we're going to find out what the cause of this fire is," said Adams. "But we will look into if those were some of the concerns."
CBS News New York has learned there have been about 70 complaints made to 311 about lack of heat and hot water since October 2024. All were resolved except a complaint made on Jan. 8, two days before the fire.
"The landlord was a slumlord. He didn't do nothing for the building," neighbor John Walker said.
Through a spokesperson, landlord Ved Parkash said, "We are withholding comment because this is an active fire investigation."
We've reported on tenant complaints involving his buildings many times, dating back to 2013. He was named by the public advocate one of the city's worst landlords in 2015.
The official cause of the fire remains under investigation.
