East Village blaze triggers deja vu of 2015 explosion
BY TODD MAISEL
A 3-alarm fire ripped
through a five-story East
Village apartment building
late Monday afternoon, fire
officials said.
The fire triggered many residents
of the area with ‘dejavu’ – recalling
the March 26, 2015 fire-gas
explosion that killed two people
and leveled the buildings across
the street on Second Avenue.
This fire began just before 4
p.m. on Feb. 10 in duct work, possibly
from one of two cafes on the
ground floor of 48 East 7th Street
and quickly spread into all floors
and to the roof of the apartment
building. Residents were quickly
evacuated and firefighters then had
the task of chasing the fire through
the walls and into the roof.
The fire quickly spread throughout
the building, but was mostly
smoke observed from the street.
Hoses were stretched up the sides
of the buildings as firefighters on
the inside had to break open walls
to find the fire.
Firefighers move tower ladder into place to help fight the fire. PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
No injuries were reported by
Emergency Medical Services,
though damage was reported to be
heavy. The Red Cross will probably
have to relocated numerous
people from the apartment building,
fire officials said.
Residents of a building across
the street admitted they were a bit
scared that another fire may level
an apartment building again.
“I was at work when that fire
happened, and I got a call and
came back here and the whole
building was on fire,” said Lorenzo
Madera, a resident of the buildiung
across the street from both the
gas explosion from 2015 and the
current fire. “I still can’t believe
it and now we have another one.
This is crazy.”
Elena Cisneros watched firefighters
extinquishing the smoke
fire from the roof of her own
building across the street. She said
the fire scared her.
“The fire started about 30
minutes earlier and it was just
like you see it now, smoke all the
way to the roof,” Cisneros said.
“I didn’t see anyone come down
the fire escape, so they must’ve
got people out early. It’s really
eerie thinking about this especially
knowing what happened across
the street – some people are living
here 20 plus years, we only
moved in a year after and there
was no building there. But people
remember it and still talk about it.”
The fire was brought under
control in about an hour and a
half, but by then, the building had
suffered extensive interior damage.
Many firefighters remembered
the 2015 fire that engulfed three
buildings as a result of a gas explosion.
Two people died in that
fire that ended in the collapse of
all three buildings. Several people
were recently convicted of involuntary
manslaughter for an illegal gas
hook up that apparently caused the
explosion.
The cause of the fire was not
immediately known and would be
investigated by fire marshals.
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