Last night, we brought exclusive coverage of the fire at the corner of East Broadway and Pike Streets, which had the entire neighborhood enveloped in a blanket of smoke from roughly 9:45 PM to midnight. Thanks to a steady stream of emails, tips, and Tweets, we gather that the smell from the blaze traveled much further uptown than we originally anticipated.
But the scene this morning (6:45 AM) is a bit more subdued; five fire trucks and their personnel are now attending to the decimated tenement. And while the fire seems to be extinguished, Tower Ladders 117 and 119 are still putting on the necessary water pressure. Otherwise, it's just another early Friday morning deep in the LES - food suppliers and their forklifts carrying produce, commuters queuing for the M15, and suits walking to work. Concrete details on how the fire started are still relatively limited. More as it unfolds.
UPDATE: According to Cityroom, seven firefighters were injured in the Chinatown blaze.
IF YOU HAVE MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE EMAIL OR COMMENT. THANKS!
6 comments:
Kudos on the reporting, BB.
I was wondering why there were so many sirens and the smell of smoke filled the neighborhood last night. Thanks for the update.
I smelled the fire about the time you said it started, & I am on the bowery north of delancey.
could kind of see from my window the general area where the smoke originated. thanks for the information!
We smelled the fire on 2nd St @ 1st Ave sometime between 9 and 10. I was surprised not to find any news -- except the CR blog, which underplayed the damage to the community -- this morning. Dropping my kid off at school (Catherine St) this morning allowed me finally to figure out where it had come from, and the devastation to the block was staggering. I don't think CR realizes what a vital role the Hong Kong Supermarket plays for Chinatown/LES.
Bravo on scooping the inattentive big media. I do wish we could ignore the name "Two Bridges," though -- doesn't it smack of yuppie real estate brokers and developers? Or is there some historic basis for it I'm not aware of?
Thanks, BB. I smelled the smoke right away and I live at 13th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues.
Building collapsed at 3:00 PM
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