KINGSBRIDGE, The Bronx (PIX11)-- At least a half dozen businesses are burned beyond repair.
Dozens of families that live next to the businesses are assessing how much damage the smoke from the blaze did to their homes.
It was a five-alarm fire that left firefighters and police on the scene for more than 15 hours after the flames ignited. The investigation into what sparked the fire continues.
At its most intense stage, the flames reached three stories into the air on 231st Street, between Broadway and Godwin Terrace.
The shops are in a one-story row on a major cross-borough bus route, right next to elevated subway tracks, and a block away from the Major Deegan Expressway. All of those transportation routes were either delayed or shut down altogether on Wednesday because of the heavy smoke generated by the intense flames.
The fire broke out around 3:30 Wednesday morning and was first called in as a one-alarm response. It quickly intensified, resulting in the five-alarm status of this emergency. That meant that at least 200 firefighters, and 44 firetrucks, engines, and other response vehicles were needed to get the blaze under control.
Once firefighters were able to do so it was more than six hours after they were called to the scene. Three different food markets, a barber shop and salon, dry cleaners, and a flower shop were all badly damaged.
Only the flower shop looked like it may be salvageable.
Nia Avery, who lives across the street from the burned-out businesses, called the situation a tragedy.
"It's really gonna affect the community," she said. "This is how people feed their children, how they feed themselves."
"It's a sad thing to see," she added.
A co-owner of one of the burned-out businesses said that his reaction to learning about the fire was strong.
"Just shock and surprise that it happened," said William Grusel, the hair salon owner, as he watched firefighters keep pouring water on the smoke that consumed the business he'd built.
He said that he was trying to cope as well as he could.
"It's an accident, it's life, you've just got to just roll with the punches and deal with what comes next," he said. He also said that he was thankful that his business was insured.
Immediately next door to the row of burned businesses is a six-story apartment building. All of the apartments on its north side face the structures that caught fire.
In the early morning hours when the buildings ignited, many of the residents were awakened by the smoke and the commotion.
Resident Fernando Vacques and his family spoke about it on Wednesday afternoon in his living room. It still smelled heavily of smoke.
"When I saw this," he said, he thought, "'Oh my God, let me get out of here. It's too many fires, close[by], everywhere.'"
His family was among many next door who evacuated voluntarily.
There ended up being only one injury at the scene, from smoke inhalation. Still, Vacques said, some of the voluntary evacuees wondered if the situation would have been worse if they hadn't left.
No cause of the fire has been determined.
Article From:
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