Over 80 residents have been displaced following a significant four-alarm fire that engulfed a Claremont, Bronx apartment building, as fires tore through the upper levels of the structure shortly after midnight. According to ABC7NY, firefighters were swiftly dispatched to battle the towering flames off Grand Concourse, with several ladders extended from engine trucks in an effort to control the blustering flames from above.
The operation faced obstacles due to three frozen hydrants that made it harder for the firefighters to quickly get the blaze under control, as reported by the same source. Despite these challenges, the FDNY crews managed to rescue two elderly residents, an 88-year-old man and a 74-year-old woman, who are now in stable condition. Residents now displaced may seek assistance at a reception center at P.S./I.S. 218, where they can register for Red Cross recovery aid and find a temporary respite from the calamity.
The top floor of the building, located at the intersection of Grand Concourse and East 167th Street, was severely damaged by the fire, leading to blown-out windows and concerns about the structural integrity. As CBS News New York detailed, residents spoke of water damage and worries about potentially collapsing ceilings due to the heavy weight of the water used to extinguish the fire.
Firefighters had to quickly work room by room with tools at their disposal, like axes and halogen bars, in order to ventilate and stop the spread of the fire – a task complicated by the cold weather, which caused the water used in their efforts to immediately ice over. "My apartment got damaged. All of our apartments got damaged. The water came down, ceiling came down," a resident disclosed to CBS News New York. Moreover, there were reports of prior electrical issues in the building that may have contributed to the fire's outbreak, as one Matt Olivari, a resident of the building, noted a neighbor's trouble with electricity: "Some lady on the fifth floor was having some electrical issue with her light, reported it to the super," he recounted. "I think it was a wire shortage and burst into fire."
The American Red Cross is actively involved, offering aid to those impacted by the inferno.
