A week ago today a fire that started in a home undergoing renovation in New Orleans spread to another home being renovated next door. Before it was over embers spreading downwind ignited six more homes in Tremé in the area of North Robertson Street between between Esplanade Avenue and Kerlerec Street.
The video above by Lark Sowell, passed along to us by frequent New Orleans visitor Vito Maggiolo, begins before the arrival of the fire department. The first unit on the scene is the safety officer who was in the area and reported the fire.
The video below by Halen13420 shows some of the homes that were ignited by the blowing embers.
On Monday we shared a bunch of videos from Sunday evening’s apartment fire on Long Island that left more than 30 residents with smoke inhalation and two firefighters injured. While there were a couple of earlier videos this is the most extensive. Taken by a citizen witnessing the fire on Fulton Avenue in Hempstead, it lasts almost 15 minutes.
So far, it appears that Lou Minutoli at FirstOnScenePhotos has the earliest video posted from the fire (above and immediately below). Make sure you listen to the water supply officer neighbor in the one above.
The fire was reported just after 6 p.m. at 590 Fulton Ave.
Chief George Sandas, a spokesman for the Hempstead Fire Department explained the difficulty that responders faced in dealing with the blaze.
“The thing that hampered us was that it auto exposed where it comes out a window, second floor goes to third floor, went to the fourth floor, so at one time we had four floors of actual fire,” he said.
The fire began inside a single apartment unit on the second floor of a seven-story building. The blaze quickly spread throughout the floor and then to multiple floors of the building, according to fire officials.
Neighbors witnessing the fire said several firefighters were on ladders helping people stranded in the upper floors of the building. Flames could be seen from the street level and thick, black smoke rose toward the sky.
During a press conference shortly after 4:00 PM Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers provided a more complete timeline of the rescue and recover of the firefighters trapped this morning. Here’s the information -
Collapse – 5:56 AM
FF Chaney removed – 6:12 AM
FF Nally removed – 6:22 AM
Lt. Neary removed – 7:06 AM
FF Sweeney removed – 7:25 AM
EARLIER:
At a noon hour press conference Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers says the firefighters who died and were injured in the collapse this morning of a furniture store at 2411 Kensington Avenue had gone back into the building to confirm that earlier efforts to extinguish fire in the exposure building had been successful. It was at that time, approximately a half-hour after the fire at a vacant warehouse and other exposures had been declared under control, that a wall and part of the roof collapsed at the furniture store. Four firefighters were trapped for an extended period as their colleagues worked to free them.
Above is raw video from the press conference during the noon hour.
Killed were Lt. Robert Neary and Firefighter Daniel Sweeney of Ladder 10. Firefighter Pat Nally is in critical but stable condition. Firefighter Francis Chaney is in stable condition. A fifth firefighter was able to free himself from the rubble and was treated and released.
Lt. Robert Neary and Firefighter Daniel Sweeney, Ladder 10.
“With deep regret,” Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers has disclosed the names of two Philadelphia firefighters who perished this morning battling a fire in a furniture store that spread from a raging five-alarm blaze that leveled an aging Kensington warehouse.
Neary was hoping to retire soon, and Sweeney was the son of a recently retired fire captain, according to Ladder 10 colleagues.
It took firefighters about two hours to dig out all of the trapped firefighters, said Deputy Fire Commissioner Ernest Hargett.
Google Maps view of furniture store at 2411 Kensington Avenue. Collapse reported to have occurred in the rear of the building. Click here to view the area.
The fire was first reported around 3:15 a.m. inside what was the Thomas Buck Hosiery Factory, which has been abandoned since the mid 1970s. Firefighters arrived on the scene to find heavy fire showing from all six floors of the building. Residents describe hearing explosions coming from inside the factory inferno.
Hot embers whipped up in strong winds started fires at six nearby homes and several surrounding businesses, including the furniture store. Firefighters were trying to extinguish the flames inside the furniture store when a rear wall collapsed, trapping five firefighters.
One of the firefighters managed to free himself but four others were trapped inside for several hours until they were finally pulled from the rubble.
This is Ed Gray's work from a 5-alarm fire in Queens that was discovered very late Sunday night. It occurred at the restaurant O'Neill's on 53rd Drive and 65th Place in the Maspeth section. The restaurant opened in 1928. It was destroyed and the fire extended to a deli next door. The restaurant was open when the fire broke out. Fire officials say the blaze began in a deep fryer in the restaurant's basement kitchen. Click here for more on the fire.
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