Two people were injured and five cats died in a residential fire that broke out on the second floor of a 6-story building (100 x 50) located on the corner of Bailey Avenue and West 230th Street in the Kingsbridge Heights section of The Bronx on Friday night.

 

An FDNY spokesperson said the department received a call at 9.11 p.m. on March 8 for reports of a fire at 147 West 230th Street located between Heath Avenue and Bailey Avenue.

 

The spokesperson said 12 units, comprising 60 firefighters and EMS personnel responded to the scene and added that the fire was located on the 2nd floor. They said the blaze was brought under control by 9.51 p.m. and that one person either refused medical attention or was treated at the scene and one person was transported to St. Barnabas Hospital.

 

The spokesperson added that fire marshals were investigating the cause and origin of the fire.

 

The American Red Cross later said, “Our team responded to a fire at 147 W 230th in the Bronx. All residents had dispersed before connecting with the Red Cross. Anyone in need of assistance after this fire should call 877-RedCross.”

From speaking to witnesses and neighbors at the fire scene on Friday night, after the blaze appeared to have been extinguished, it seems that the fire may have broken out in a second floor apartment of the building which has its main entrance facing West 230th Street. We spoke to one young male witness on Bailey Avenue and asked him to describe what he had seen. He replied, “I mean I just saw a big fire, that’s all.”

 

Asked if he knew how it had started, he said, “No, I just came out, and a fire is a fire and yeah, [everything] was going crazy.” Asked if he had been on the street when he noticed the flames, he said, “No, we were inside the mosque and, you know, we smelled the smoke and we came out.”

The Abrar Masjid mosque is located at 3016 Bailey Avenue close to the affected building. The young man, who was with a group of other male youths, many under 18, said he saw flames coming out of the window of the second floor of the building. Asked if they were big, he said they were. We asked if he saw a lot of people evacuating the building. He replied, “No, just firemen going in.”

 

We asked if he had seen anyone injured or any ambulances transport people away. He said he didn’t see any injuries but he did see emergency personnel / first responders.

Water was seen dripping from the ceiling inside El Rey Deli Grocery, located at 3002 Bailey Avenue underneath the affected apartment, and a store worker placed a bucket by the entrance of the store which appeared to remain open for business.

 

A few doors down on Bailey Avenue, located at 3008 Bailey Avenue, Bailey Laudromat appeared to be shutting for the everning and it wasn’t clear if water from the apartment overhead had caused the lights to turn off or if they were off because the laundromat was closing up.

A female worker said the dripping had stopped but pointed to water stains/damage to the ceiling.

 

Outside the stores, scaffolding was seen and was likely there before the fire broke out. One section underneath the scaffolding on the Bailey Avenue side of the building (the storefront side) was cordoned off with yellow tape and there was some debris on the sidewalk inside the yellow tape. It was unknown if the debris had fallen from above because of the fire or not but the area in question under the scaffolding was covered over at the top.

A young male resident of the building who said he lived on the fourth floor, and who appeared to be in shock when we spoke to him, said when he opened the door of his apartment, the smoke in the corridor was thick and black and he didn’t think he was going to be able to exit the building via the usual route so he said in the end, he exited via the external fire escape stairway, located on the opposite side of the building to its 230th Street entrance.

 

Asked if he was cold as he stood in the night air without a jacket, the young man who was under 18 said he wasn’t but later said he was getting cold and wanted to speak to the firefighters to ask if he could go back inside. We approached the fire chief to ask and he said that yes, he could go back inside. The young man said his parents were not home at the time the fire broke out.

A FIRE RAGES inside an apartment of a multi-story, residential building located on the corner of Bailey Avenue and West 230th Street in Kingsbridge Heights on Friday night, March 8, 2024. Video courtesy of Adnan Hossein

Inside the building, we spoke to the Super and asked if he was ok. He said he was but added that he now had a lot of work to do. He was seen carrying an industrial wet vacuum cleaner around as he began the job of getting rid of excess water from the second floor corridor.

 

We also spoke to a female neighbor of the affected residents who lived in the apartment apparently where the fire broke out. The door of the affected the apartment was seen blackened and damaged from smoke and the fire.

Asked to describe what had happened, the female neighbor said she heard a noise, called 911, and went outside. Asked what type of noise, she said, “There was a man screaming ‘fire, fire!’ I heard a voice saying, ‘Fire!’ and the alarm sounded really loud,” she said. Asked if everyone was evacuating the building, she said she wasn’t sure but she went outside.

 

The resident said when she got outside her apartment door, the fire firefighters were already there. FDNY Engine 81 / Ladder 46 is located a short distance away on the opposite side of Bailey Avenue to where the fire broke out.

Asked if she knew if her affected neighbors were elderly or young or how many people lived in the apartment near her, she said, “I mean, I’ve seen a young puppy/couple [inaudible] come out, but I don’t know who else lives there.”

 

Gesturing to four dead cats lying just inside the door of her apartment on the floor, we asked if they were her neighbors’ cats, she said, “I guess…..[…]” and then said something about the firemen, but with the sound of the industrial wet vacuum cleaner, it was difficult to hear her. She said there was another dead cat by the main entrance to the building. A cat carrier was seen in the wallway.

 

The resident said she believed her immediate neighbors in the impacted apartment near her had been evacuated and were outside on the street [being tended to potentially]. Norwood News did not manage to see the affected residents on the street outside but they may have been inside an ambulance.

As above, we will share any additional information we receive from the FDNY about the incident. We have reached out to the American Red Cross for details of any residents who may have been rehoused and will share any updates we receive.

 

The American Red Cross previously gave the following advice regarding pets and fire safety. “Keep pets near entrances when away from home. Keep collars on pets and leashes at the ready in case firefighters need to rescue them. When leaving pets home alone, keep them in areas or rooms near entrances where firefighters can easily find them.”

 

Additional advice included affixing a pet alert window cling and writing down the number of pets inside a home and attaching the static cling to a front window. “This critical information saves rescuers time locating your pets,” the website extract read. “Keep the number of listed pets updated.”

Three people were injured in a residential fire on Monday, March 4, in Norwood, as reported, while in a separate fire in Norwood on Saturday, March 9, two people were injured, as reported.

 

At home fire safety tips can be found at www.fdnysmart.org. The Office of the Bronx Borough President recently kicked off a new series of fire safety training sessions around the borough in conjunction with the FDNY.