The FDNY said eight people, including at least one woman believed to be around 80, have been hospitalized following a 2-alarm fire that broke out in Fordham Manor on Tuesday evening, Oct. 8.

 

Fire officials said they received a call at 5.05 p.m. for a report of smoke/fire at 2552 University Avenue located between West 192nd Street and West 190th Street. They said the fire was on the 3rd floor and extended to a degree to the 4th floor (firefighters refer to the affected floor as the 2nd for firefighting purposes, and extending to the third) of the 5-story, multiple dwelling, drawing 25 fire units comprising 106 fire and EMS personnel.

 

They said three civilians suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries and four civilians suffered minor injuries. They said one civilian, an elderly woman estimated to be around 80, is in critical condition and has been transferred to NYU Presbyterian – Allen Pavillion. They said eight others were also transferred to area hospitals and one person refused medical attention at the scene. They said all injuries were smoke-related rather than burns.

 

They said the fire was brought under control at 6.51 p.m. and the cause and origin of the fire is under investigation by fire marshals.

We spoke to resident, Natalie Roman, who lives on the second floor of the building, and asked if she could tell us what happened. “So technically, I really don’t know what started the fire,” she said. “All I know is that my daughter, she started screaming, ‘There’s smoke! There’s smoke!’ and when I went to see, there was a lot of black smoke coming through my door, and then, out of nowhere, it was not smoke no more. It was like an intense fire coming through the door.”

 

Roman continued, “So, I just thought of my dog, my kids, and I said, ‘Let’s go through the window,’ and we just ran out the window and we ran down the fire escape, and we started screaming for help. By the time I came down, there was still no fire department, no police. We started screaming for help. They said the fire department was on the way.”

 

Roman added, “I said that my neighbor, she’s 90, that she needed help, that please somebody to go and rescue her so they made sure that she was the first one to get rescued.” She added that her neighbor lived alone, was a wheelchair user, and was also slightly deaf.

 

Roman said he doesn’t believe the fire started in her elderly neighbor’s apartment either which was also on the second floor. “They took her out the window with her home attendant,” she said of the firefighters. Asked if she was ok, Roman said, “I don’t know how exactly. I know she didn’t get burned by the fire, and yeah, we are alive.”

Asked if her neighbor was outside with other residents, she said, “I think they took her in the ambulance because she got really scared. She’s like 90.” Of her own circumstances, she said her three children are aged 13, 12, and 9. Asked if they had been scared, she said, “Yes, they were scared. I’m still shaking, myself. I got a friend who let me borrow these clothes because I wasn’t sure then with the PJs..”

 

Asked if the building holds regular fire drills, she said, “No. I guess we have that problem here. Everybody tends to ignore that because, like, sometimes people is cooking and it’s ringing, so sometimes people ignore it. But I always tell my kids, ‘think fast’ and the first thought was that: ‘Let’s jump out the window [down the fire escape]!’

 

Referring to the time of the fire and her elderly neighbor, Roman said, “She’s always asking me for help, but she was at that time with her home attendant. She was in bed.” Asked if she was a nice lady, Roman said, “Yes, she’s in her ’90s, and she don’t walk. You have to shout at her so she could hear.”

 

Roman added, “They broke the side of the building, the corner of her window, and that’s where they got her out from.” She said there was another elderly man who lived upstairs from her.

Deputy Fire Chief William McCormack (Division 7) and Deputy FDNY EMS Chief Mario Thompkins (Division 2) later spoke to the media at the scene about what they encountered. “The units arrived within minutes; there were no delays in the response,” McCormack said. “They were met with heavy fire on the second floor. They were able to fight their way in to the front of that apartment.”

 

He continued, “It was so severe we actually had to put a line in through the window from the outside to fight the fire from two directions.” He said while that was going on, firefighters had several units that were involved in rescues. “We removed nine civilians from the building. One of them is in critical condition,” McCormack said.

 

He went on to say that they rescued two people down the fire escape on the front of the building, out of the window. “We brought four people down the fire escape in the rear of the building, and we brought one person down a stair chair when conditions were better approved,” McCormack said.

 

Of the injured, Thompkins said, “The critical patient was initially assessed and was in stable condition and rapidly deteriorated due to smoke conditions and was transported rapidly to an area hospital.” He said nine people in total were assessed, eight hospitalized and one refused medical attention. They said all were adults, ranging in age from around 30 to around 80 and added that the critical patient, a 79-year-old woman, was transported to the nearest “911 hospital.”

A VIDEO OF the aftermath of the scene earlier in the evening as shot by one resident. Video courtesy of Zaida Rivas

Norwood News asked if the patient in question had been rescued from the second-floor in light of Roman’s comments about her elderly neighbor. “I don’t know where that patient would have been removed from; most likely could have been [second floor],” McCormack said.  “That patient took in heavy smoke conditions, so if not at the second floor, maybe somewhere near it.”

 

Asked to elaborate on the difficulty of fighting the fire, McCormack explained, “So in fires that are heavy on arrival, very often, we cannot make progress on our initial line because there’s so much fire. So we used what we call an alternate tactic. We come in from either an adjoining building, an adjoining apartment, or from the outside of the fire escape, and in this case, the easiest thing for us was to go up the fire escape and actually put the fire out in that rear room in that apartment from the outside, and while the other units worked on the interior front part of that apartment.”

 

He said the fire spread somewhat to the third floor. “Some of the victims did come out of the floors above,” he said. Asked about the likely cause, he said, “We have the marshals on the scene right now, and they’re conducting their investigation. I hope to have some results soon.”

 

Asked if he thought the cause of the fire was suspicious, McCormack said, “The marshals are working on the cause. I have no reason to believe it is suspicious, but they’ll come down with their conclusion.”

In response to a question about a belief by reporters that civilians had been seen from a helicopter on the roof of the building, the deputy fire chief said only firefighters were on the roof. “We will keep going up to make sure that there’s no fire extending up in a channel or a void in the building that goes right up to the roof,” he said. “Once it hits the roof, it hits the cocklift area, the area underneath the roof, and it goes left and right. So we purposely put people [firefighters] above that to cut that off so it doesn’t get up into that situation. I have no reports of civilians on the roof.”

 

McCormack said that while that was going on, they got several units that were rescued, nine civilians from the building. One of them is a critical position, EMS coworker here more details on that. We moved two people down our aerial of the building. We brought four people down the fire station. We were to go and we brought one person downstairs.

 

The Red Cross are at the scene and assisting residents. We will provide more updates as we receive them.

 

We’ve reached out the press office for the Red Cross to ask if families have been rehoused. Any residents in need of Red Cross assistance should call 877-RedCross (option 1).

District 14 City Council Member Pierina Sanchez, who is expecting a baby, was seen holding her clothing over her mouth to shield herself from the residual smoke at the site of the fire as she and her colleague spoke to the Red Cross and to residents.

 

Click here to read FDNY’s fire safety tips. “During a fire, always close the door behind you!” fire officials say. “It helps contain smoke and flames, giving you precious time to escape. Your quick action can make the difference.”

 

*Miriam Quinones contributed to this story.