Lightening Strike at 665 New York Avenue, Brooklyn Causes 7 Alarm Fire 07.26.2012

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A lightning strike sparked a massive fire that broke out in a residential building in the Prospect-Lefferts Gardens section of Flatbush Thursday morning. A lighting strike hit 456 Brooklyn Ave. at 9:47 a.m. and the 7-story building on New York Avenue caught fire at 10:08 a.m., according to the FDNY.






NEW YORK (AP) — A roaring fire engulfed the upper floors of an apartment building on Thursday, injuring dozens of firefighters and forcing more than 100 families to leave.

Hundreds of firefighters battled the flames, which erupted Thursday morning on a top floor of the seven-story building in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood and soon broke through the roof, the fire department said. Hours later, orange flames and dark, billowing smoke were still visible at the 106-unit building.

Authorities said 26 firefighters were hurt, one seriously, and one civilian was treated at the scene.

The fire was extinguished by mid afternoon. The cause of the fire was under investigation, but there was a report of a lightning strike just blocks away around the same time.

Resident Valma Brown heard a neighbor knocking on her second-floor door, telling her the building was burning. She said she grabbed a robe and threw it over her night clothes, then rushed into a smoke-filled hallway with four adults and two young boys.

"We walked through smoke. There was a lot of smoke, and everything was flying all over," she said, explaining that firefighters were breaking windows to get in. "The whole building was full of water."

The group then made its way through a back door downstairs to a patio.

The Red Cross set up a temporary shelter for displaced residents at a nearby public school.

Another resident, Shondelle Rodney, said she rushed home from work when a friend called her saying the building was on fire. Her older sister was still asleep in the family's fifth-floor apartment.

"She didn't hear anything, so we called her," Rodney said.

The sister got out, taking along their dog and cat, she said, "but the bird is still up there."

The other residents of the apartment — another sister, their mother and two children — were not home when the fire started.

The family planned to spend the night at the school. Rodney didn't know when they'd be able to return.









(The usual disclaimers: I am not a journalist; This is a blog that expresses an outlook and is not conclusive in any shape or manner.)

FIVE-ALARMS IN ST. LOUIS, 3949 Lindell Blvd 07.17.201

A fire that destroyed a 197-unit apartment in St. Louis is stirring debate about the use of lightweight, synthetic building materials over brick and real wood.

About 100 people inside the complex got out. It took about 160 firefighters from the city and St. Louis County to put out the blaze.

The fire broke out Tuesday night at the apartment complex in the city's Central West End, near the Saint Louis University campus. No one was killed or injured but about 250 residents were displaced.







Less than an hour after firefighters arrived on the scene of a blaze at a Central West End apartment building Tuesday night, they were forced to evacuate as the top floor of the four-story structure began to collapse. The flames spread fast through the attic.



St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said, “The fire alarm systems worked.  Meaning the alarm system to tell everybody to evacuated.  Sprinkler system.  The building was sprinklered.  That was all intact.  Everything worked as planned,” 




Chief Jenkerson also called the fire a “perfect storm” with record heat leading to 200+ degree temperatures in the attic, which allowed the flames to cut through the walls “like a hot knife through butter.”

  

“As fast as it was moving and as hot as it was it might have just blown ‘em over and kept moving.  It was a very hot fire,” he said. “(The attic) had baked all day so I would venture to say it was above 200 degrees in that attic easily, and we think the fire started somewhere near the ceiling level so the fire was burning in the attic when we got there so it had a little of a head start on us.”

City officials confirmed that the four-story was structure was built to code, had working sprinklers and had "draft stops" that are designed to slow the spread of fire in the attic. Officials believe the fire started above the ceiling of a top-floor unit.

Still, Jenkerson expressed concerns about the building materials.

"Like every fire chief, I look at the (building) code every year," he said. "We have a risk perspective that's different from the building trade's. You've got to take the costs and weigh it against the risk."




(The usual disclaimers: I am not a journalist; This is a blog that expresses an outlook and is not conclusive in any shape or manner.)

SIX-ALARMS IN THE BRONX, 975 Walton Ave 07.18.2012

New York News | New York Breaking News | NYC Headlines






Just after midnight, the FDNY responded to a fire at 975 Walton Ave at a landmark Bronx apartment building near Yankee Stadium. The fire was initially a two-alarm fire but grew to six alarms right before 4 a.m. The FDNY had it under control by then, too, with 200 firefighters responding. Twenty-eight firefighters in total were injured, as were two civilians. None of the injuries were considered serious.

The fire was in the fifth and sixth floors as well as the cockloft. Fire chief Edward Kilduff explained, "By the time we stretch lines up to the sixth floor rear of this building, we probably stretched 200 feet of hoseline. That in itself is an exhaustive task. Then to move in and start putting out the fire just compounds the challenge." A wall also partially collapsed.


Dozens injured in Bronx building fire - New York News | New York Breaking News | NYC Headlines

30 hurt as huge fire tears through apartment building in the Bronx | 7online.com







(The usual disclaimers: I am not a journalist; This is a blog that expresses an outlook and is not conclusive in any shape or manner.)