Fire Damages Harlem Co-op

A plume of gray smoke reached up into the Harlem sky as a fire tore through an apartment block late Monday afternoon and destroyed a building some residents had called home for many years.

The fire was first reported at 4:33 p.m. and soon after, 469 West 113th Street, between 7th Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, was surrounded by flashing lights, fire trucks, and lengths of hose stretching from all available fire hydrants.

According to Tim Heaton, a firefighter working in the Fire Department of New York press office, the fire started on the second floor of the building and soon spread to the third, fourth, and fifth floors.

While there were no serious injuries reported, some residents sustained minor injuries. “It’s a serious fire on three floors,” Steve Cassidy, FDNY union president, said. “This kind of cold day, this kind of fire—it’s inevitable that there are going to be injuries.”

The FDNY measures the seriousness of a fire according to a 10-point “alarm” scale. This fire was reported as an alarm level 3, but later escalated to an alarm level 4, which meant that 170 firemen and 40 companies surrounded the blazing building and spilled out onto 8th Avenue for two blocks. One firefighter said, “Third alarm? That’s a lot of trucks.”

The residents of the building, all of whom escaped safely, were unaware of the state of their homes as they took shelter in a public school on 113th Street. Many residents looked sad and confused as they consumed cups of tea, soup, and noodles provided by the Red Cross.

Clio White, a 92-year-old who lived on the first floor of the building, remained stoic. “It’s probably damaged. I don’t know. I don’t know where I’m going to be staying. I’ve been living in the building since it’s been here,” White said.

Carlos Rivera, the building manager, was trying to find accommodations for residents like White, but he admitted, “We don’t know what’s going to happen.” According to Heaton, “The Red Cross will deal with them. If they need housing, they’ll find them a place to stay.”

The fire clearly brought some of the residents together. One resident in particular audibly thanked another resident for helping her to escape.

“I was afraid to come out the fire escape. I saw him and his baby running. I was looking for my cat and my mom actually, and he helped me down the fire escape,” fourth floor resident Kisha Burks said. “It was me and my little daughter, and him and his son. ... He gave me the courage to come down the fire escape. When I saw the glass break I knew I had no other choice. They were breaking the glass to put out the fire, I didn’t want to go but then I knew.”

The recipient of the praise, fifth floor resident Sekon Berthe, simply said, “She didn’t want to use a ladder to get out. She was scared, very scared. I encouraged her to get out.”

In addition to the large number of fire trucks that surrounded the scene, there was a large contingent of paramedics, police officers, and officials from the Department of Environmental Protection, who were there to ensure that the fire hydrants worked. Also, three helicopters circled overhead.

The fire was put out by 6:27 p.m. Though the full scale of the damage had not yet been assessed, one firefighter said that the “whole rear is demolished.”

josh.chambers@columbiaspectator.com