Flames ripped through the top floor and roof of a 10-story apartment building on Broadway near West 151st Street Sunday evening, injuring five people including four firefighters as crews battled the blaze into the night. The FDNY was dispatched to 3657 Broadway shortly after 6:15 p.m., and firefighters were seen working on the building's roof as the fire spread through the upper level of the century-old structure.
The two-alarm fire was brought under control around 7:45 p.m., roughly 90 minutes after the initial dispatch, according to Belaaz News. Officials confirmed one firefighter suffered serious injuries, three more sustained minor injuries, and one civilian was also hurt, with all five taken to area hospitals for treatment. CBS News New York, which first reported the incident, confirmed that four firefighters were among the five people injured, with reporter Allen Devlin covering the scene as crews worked the fire on the roof of the Broadway building.
A Pre-War Building With a Recent Fire History
Property records show 3657 Broadway is a 10-story elevator apartment building constructed in 1917, containing 79 residential units — 76 of which are rent-stabilized — along with five commercial ground-floor spaces spanning 111,420 square feet, according to PropertyShark. The building's age and density mean fires like this one carry particular evacuation and fire-spread concerns for older, pre-war residential structures across the city.
This was not the first time firefighters were called to the address. FDNY dispatch archives reviewed by Nycfire.net show crews responded to a 10-77 high-rise fire signal at 3657 Broadway in January 2026, when a blaze broke out in a second-floor apartment. The building is assigned to FDNY Box 1651.
Why a Top-Floor Fire Triggers a Bigger Response
Sunday's blaze on the 10th floor and roof falls squarely under the FDNY's 10-77 high-rise protocol, a dispatch code reserved for working fires in multiple dwellings 75 feet or taller. That designation mobilizes specialized resources including high-rise nozzle companies, ventilation support units, and four each of engine and ladder companies, per operational guidelines detailed by N2NOV. Top-floor and roof fires in older high-rises are especially demanding for crews, since they require suppressing flames at the upper levels while searching for occupants under heavy smoke.
The neighborhood has seen serious fireground injuries before. In November 2024, a five-alarm fire on West 145th Street in Hamilton Heights injured nine people — including an FDNY firefighter who survived a 40-foot fall down an interior shaft — and displaced nearly 100 residents, as Hoodline previously reported in its coverage of the firefighter's recovery. Fire marshals in that case attributed the blaze to an electrical lamp cord malfunction, according to CBS News New York's earlier reporting.
Firefighting Remains a Dangerous Job Citywide
Fireground injuries like the ones sustained Sunday reflect a persistent occupational hazard for the nation's largest municipal fire department. FDNY firefighters sustained 6,306 service-connected injuries in fiscal year 2025, according to the NYC Mayor's Management Report — a gradual decline from 8,157 injuries recorded in fiscal year 2016, per data cited by EMS1. The department responds to more than 300,000 fires and non-fire emergencies each year, in addition to over 1.6 million medical emergencies across the city, according to NYC.gov.
Nationally, the National Fire Protection Association estimated that 16,275 firefighter injuries occurred on the fireground in 2024, representing 30 percent of all municipal firefighter injuries across the country. New York state logged 9.4 fire injuries per 1,000 fires in 2023, higher than the national baseline of 6.4 injuries per 1,000 fires, according to U.S. Fire Administration records.
The cause of Sunday's fire has not been made public, and the exact condition of the seriously injured firefighter remains unknown. It is also unclear whether any of the building's 76 rent-stabilized households will face long-term displacement as a result of the damage to the top floor and roof.
