Flames tore through a multi-family home on Garfield Place in Van Nest Friday afternoon, escalating to a second-alarm fire within minutes and sending one firefighter to the hospital before crews got it under control. The blaze started before 2 p.m. and had firefighters and EMS workers swarming the Bronx block as smoke poured from the building.
Fire Escalates Fast, Dozens of Crews Respond
The fire broke out at 1730 Garfield Place and escalated to a second-alarm fire just ten minutes after it started, according to News 12 Bronx, citing officials. In all, 46 fire and EMS personnel were sent to the scene to battle the flames at the multi-family home.
Video from the scene showed smoke rising from the building as crews worked to knock down the fire, and footage captured on the Citizen app showed the home had turned charred and nearly black in color by the time the flames were brought under control. One firefighter suffered minor injuries during the response and was taken to a nearby hospital, fire officials said, per the same report.
FDNY Contains the Blaze Within the Hour
FDNY said the fire was contained just before 3 p.m., roughly an hour after it was first reported. The cause of the Garfield Place fire has not been determined, and it remains unclear how many residents were displaced or whether the home sustained structural damage beyond its blackened exterior.
A Rough Stretch for Van Nest and the Bronx
Friday's fire adds to a string of serious blazes that have hit Van Nest and other Bronx neighborhoods over the past year. A four-alarm fire that started at a mechanic shop on East Tremont Avenue last November injured four firefighters after it spread to two neighboring buildings on Rosedale Avenue, according to News 12 Bronx. Another Van Nest fire, reported by PIX11, displaced more than a dozen people after flames spread from an auto body shop to neighboring properties.
Van Nest has also seen a supermarket fire injure two firefighters, one seriously, after flames broke out in the basement and first floor of Bravo Supermarket on Archer Street, according to ABC7 New York. Elsewhere in the Bronx, a five-alarm fire at a Claremont deli injured two firefighters and a resident in January, a firehouse blaze injured 14 firefighters in March, and a four-alarm fire in Fordham that spread through two homes injured five firefighters in July, per separate ABC7 New York and NY1 reports.
No details have been released on what sparked Friday's fire at the Garfield Place home, and officials have not said whether any residents were displaced. FDNY creates incident reports for fires and emergencies that occur within New York City, though no such report had been made public as of Friday afternoon.
