Parked Cars Blocked Hydrants as Norwood Fire Injured Four, Officials Say

A four-alarm fire tore through the top floor of an 85-unit apartment building in Norwood before dawn Thursday, injuring four people, including two firefighters, after crews had to work around two cars parked near fire hydrants that officials say delayed their response.

Firefighters were called to 3435 Dekalb Avenue just before 5:50 a.m., according to News 12 Bronx. The fire broke out in the building's top-floor cockloft, where insulation trapped heat and caused the flames to spread rapidly across the structure, per officials cited in the report. Two vehicles parked near fire hydrants slowed the response, officials told the outlet, though it remains unclear whether the cars were towed or ticketed.

Two firefighters were hurt battling the blaze, and two other people were injured as well, per officials. Citizen video captured heavy smoke visible for miles as the fire spread through the building, according to the same News 12 report.

Why Parking Near a Hydrant Can Cost Lives

Under New York City traffic rules, parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant is prohibited at all times, carrying a baseline $115 fine and immediate towing authorization, according to the New York City Department of Transportation. When illegally parked vehicles obstruct emergency responses during major fires, the FDNY Bureau of Fire Prevention can issue criminal court summonses carrying fines up to $5,000, and firefighters are trained to break car windows or feed hoses through vehicles when necessary to reach water, per the New York City Fire Department. It is not known from available reporting whether either enforcement measure was used at the Dekalb Avenue scene.

The cockloft that fed Thursday's fire is the structural void space between a building's top-floor ceiling and its roof deck, where trapped heat can cause flames to spread horizontally across an entire floor unless ladder crews cut into the roof and pull ceilings from below, according to Fire Engineering. Property records list 3433-3435 Dekalb Avenue as a six-story, semi-fireproof elevator building constructed in 1927 with 85 residential units, according to PropertyShark, a density that makes cockloft fires especially labor-intensive to contain.

A Second Major Norwood Fire in Two Weeks

Thursday's blaze marks the second major multi-alarm residential fire to hit Norwood within a month. Just two weeks earlier, on August 5, a fatal five-alarm explosion and fire struck an apartment building at 374 East 209th Street, killing one resident and injuring 15 people, including six firefighters, according to CBS News New York. Hoodline previously reported on that blast in Battery Blast Suspected in Four-Alarm Norwood Fire That Injures One, and later covered the housing fallout facing one displaced family in a separate story.

Five months earlier, in March, FDNY firefighters responded to another pre-dawn top-floor apartment blaze at 3345 Decatur Avenue in Norwood that sent a resident and a firefighter to the hospital. That incident and a broader pattern of pre-dawn multi-alarm fires across the West Bronx were previously detailed in Hoodline's coverage of the Decatur Avenue fire and a related report on similar blazes in Norwood and Melrose.

Resources for Displaced Residents

Following multi-alarm residential fires that displace families, the American Red Cross Greater New York Region deploys emergency disaster response teams to provide temporary lodging, emergency funds, and mental health support, according to the American Red Cross. The FDNY's active Get Alarmed NYC program also distributes and installs free sealed 10-year smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in high-risk West Bronx neighborhoods like Norwood. How many tenants were displaced from the Dekalb Avenue building, and what repairs or vacate orders the Department of Buildings may issue for the damaged top floor and roof, remain open questions.

The Norwood section falls within the response area of local firehouses including Engine Company 79 and Ladder Company 37 on Briggs Avenue and Engine Company 62 and Ladder Company 32 on White Plains Road. No further details on the condition of the four injured or the cause of the fire beyond the cockloft's role were available as of Thursday.