A four alarm fire claimed a residential apartment building on Park Avenue Saturday morning.
Luis Pinzon, who lives on the first floor of the three-apartment house with his wife, Beatriz, noticed smoke pouring into his apartment around 9:30 a.m. and called the fire department.
Flames and smoke poured out of the windows of the house shortly before 10 a.m. and later migrated up to the attic.
One person was hospitalized after being rescued from the second floor of a multi-family home on Park Avenue Saturday morning, according to Bob Landrigan, Office of Emergency Management coordinator.
Three people were inside the building when the call of the fire came in, Landrigan said. A woman, whose identity has not been released, was trapped on the second floor and rescued by firefighters from the burning structure, Landrigan said.
Audio from mayday at FDNY 5th-alarm in Brooklyn. Union says staffing cuts played a role in fire. FDNY says it was the wind & an open door: This is the fire that broke out during high winds Saturday evening in a 70-unit, six-story apartment building. It left a resident dead and injured 20 firefighters. One of the firefighters, who was burned, was rescued by other firefighters during a mayday. Firegeezer.com has coverage of this fire. Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy believes crews were hampered by the recent removal of one firefighter from 60 FDNY engine companies. From WINS Radio – Cassidy claims that because the first unit to arrive on the scene Saturday had one less firefighter, “it took [the crew] five minutes longer to get water on the fire.” An FDNY statement gives a different view, “Contrary to the UFA’s statement, it was the open door problem – greatly exacerbated by severe winds – that fueled this fire into an unstoppable conflagration … “.
It was windy here too: The high winds hitting the East Coast kept firefighters busy. Prince George’s County, Maryland was so busy it received mutual aid from across the Chesapeake Bay and Western Maryland. We have lots of videos and details, including arrival video of two burning homes in College Park. Click here and here for our coverage.
The wind helped keep Baltimore County busy: Besides brush fire, since Friday there have been a significant number of muli-alarm structure fires in Baltimore County. One of those was a third-alarm commerical fire on Pulaski Highway on Saturday. Check out Michael Schwartzberg’s video on this one.
Early video from Loudoun County, Virginia house fire: A house fire on Friday in the Broadlands community. Click here.
It’s Not My Emergency: I have mentioned this before, but if you are interested in how social media and public safety interact you need to be reading Chief Bill Boyd’s blog, It’s Not My Emergency. I’ve been playing catch up on the thoughts of the fire chief from Bellingham, Washington. It’s well worth your time.
Unfortunately it was HIS emergency: In Conesus, New York, Lt. Jim Wood didn’t realize at first the fire he was responding to was in his own home. He soon found out. His family was not home when the fire broke out. Click here for that story.
Fighting a house fire from the shoulder of Interstate 85: That was the case in McAdenville, North Carolina (Gaston County). The back of the burning home was next to the highway. Here’s the story.
Cop and fire chief charged with arson, but only one person was arrested: A little riddle to start the week. Late last week Morris County, New Jersey officials held a press conference to say a Morris County Sheriff’s officer and the assistant chief of the District 5 VFD in Parsippany are accused of arson. Actually it is just one person, 33-year-old Jason Campbell, who fills both roles. The house fires were in 2008 and 2010 and the case was cracked as part of an undercover investigation and the use of a confidential informant. Other fires are being looked at. Read more.
The ambulance that burst into flames at the Flanders fire and rescue building this morning was the same one that sparked a new law extending the state’s “Lemon Law”’ provisions to emergency vehicles, officials said.
Photos by DailyRecord.com's Bob Karp.
The ambulance, one of the three rigs operated by the Flanders First Aid and Rescue Squad, had just returned from a medical call before it was parked inside the fire house garage at 27 Main St. — then erupted in flames at 10:40 a.m., according to Jeff Paul, spokesman for the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.
No one was inside at the time of the fire, but two firefighters from Flanders suffered smoke inhalation battling the flames.
Fire crews from Flanders, Budd Lake and Chester responded to the blaze within minutes after a smoke alarm inside the fire house was activated. The fire was knocked out quickly, said Doug Fenichel, spokesman for the Flanders Fire Department.
Melissa Hackenberg, 22, who lives behind the fire house on Railroad Avenue, said she saw the flames and grabbed a camera and began taking photos of the burning ambulance.
“All I saw was smoke billowing out of the fire house,” Hackenberg said. “I just couldn’t believe the firehouse was on fire. The flames were high, but never shot out of the firehouse. ”
The ambulance, after returning from the medical call, was placed out of service for an issue with its anti-lock braking system and an investigation revealed the fire originated in the area of the ABS within the engine compartment, Paul said.
The rig as a history of electrical issues, according to Mayor David Scapicchio.
“It was the lemon,” Scapicchio said, referring to the burned ambulance, after he visited the scene. “It is a shame, but we have insurance.”
After the then-new Ford ambulance broke down on a medical call three years ago, the Flanders first aid squad lobbied to include emergency vehicles in the state’s “Lemon Law,” which requires manufacturers and “component suppliers” of new vehicles to correct defects that are originally covered under the manufacturer’s warranty.
The law, which was signed earlier this month, applies to new vehicles that develop repeated defects or are unusable for extended periods during the first two years or within the first 18,000 miles of use.
A vehicle is considered a “lemon” if three repair attempts fail to correct the problem.
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