A third fire in seven months devastated the Norwood merchant district and those who rely on it on Dec. 21, leaving merchants, residents and community leaders shaken and fearing the worst: that arson, which had devastated the borough in the 1970s, was returning to the Bronx.

On Halloween, a fire leveled 14 businesses on Bainbridge Avenue, including a bakery that had just been renovated after a previous fire in April.

The most recent fire was a 5-alarm blaze on East 204th Street that gutted Foodtown, the only supermarket on the strip – it had been renovated only six months ago – as well as the American Diner and a dental office. It took 168 firefighters to extinguish it. 

McKeon Funeral Home on Perry Avenue suffered some water and smoke damage but was back up and running in a couple of days.

The Fire Department is still investigating the two recent fires, and until last week it could not provide information about the cause for the April blaze at the bakery. Asked about it again last week, the agency’s press office told the Norwood News that it was “an accidental fire and it was connected to the oven, and the combustibles near it went on fire.” But in an interview, the owner of the Bainbridge Bakery, Anna Mirdita, said she finds that hard to believe since there was only smoke at the site, and firefighters had to rip up the floor to get at it. The ovens are on the ground floor and had been off for four hours, she said. (The Norwood News has filed a Freedom of Information Law Request to get all documents related to the investigation.)

The Katz family, owners of the destroyed supermarket, which they opened under another name in 1956, announced within 48 hours that they planned to rebuild and said they had already discussed taking over the diner and the dental office space with the landlord in order to expand its offerings. They also announced that they would be offering groceries on-line at www.foodtown.com which could be delivered or picked up at

Pricebusters on East 204th Street, another business the Katzes own. To order groceries by phone, residents can call (718) 293-3032.

We will continue to keep residents updated on the fire aftermath in the paper and on-line at www.bronxnewsnetwork.org.