Soho fire
A five-alarm fire at 575 Broadway, a six-story, cast-iron building at the corner of Prince St. in Soho, brought 200 firefighters to the scene on Saturday night Jan. 21. Six firefighters and one civilian were injured and taken to the hospital, a Fire Department spokesperson said.
The fire, which apparently started in the basement, had spread to the first and second floors by the time the first alarm was sounded at 10:04 p.m.
The fifth alarm came in at 11:27 p.m. and by the time the fire was brought under control at 2:21 a.m. Sunday morning, retail outlets, including Prada Broadway, Urban Outfitters and Isobel Brown Cosmetics, were severely damaged, as were the offices of Interview magazine and Antiques Magazine Library. The Guggenheim Museum’s administrative offices on the second, third and fourth floors of the building sustained extensive water damage, according to a museum spokesperson. The building was the former location of the Guggenheim Soho Museum.
A Fire Department spokesperson said on Tues. Jan. 23 that a previous report of arson as the cause was not confirmed but that the fire was still under investigation.
14th St. fatal hit-run
A hit-and-run driver who struck and killed a woman crossing E. 14th St. at Second Ave. at 1:24 a.m. Sun. Jan. 22 fled the scene on foot but gave himself up to police about 16 hours later.
The victim, Hannah Engle, 25, of 317 E. 93rd St., was taken to Bellevue hospital where she was declared dead at 1:55 a.m., police said. Engle, who was from California, was studying for a joint master’s degree at New York University in nonprofit management and Jewish studies.
The driver fled from the accident on foot, leaving the car at the scene, police said. He turned himself in at the 94th Precinct in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at 5:30 p.m.
The suspect, Wole K. Parks, 23, of 2492 Seventh Ave., Brooklyn, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, driving without a license and driving while intoxicated, police said.
Man dies on train
The body of a U.S. Postal Service employee was found on a northbound Q train near the 14th St. Union Square station at the beginning of the morning rush on Thursday Jan. 19, according to a New York City Transit spokesperson.
The victim, Eugene M. Reilly, 64, of Brooklyn had apparently died sometime after 1 a.m., having walked to the 34th St. Q train station from his job at the Morgan Annex postal station on 30th St. on his way home. His body was discovered on the train at 7:11 a.m., the spokesperson said. Reilly died of natural causes, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Credit-card theft
A woman told police that an unknown thief removed her wallet from her bag while she was in a bakery at 135 Sullivan St. in Soho on Wednesday afternoon Jan. 18. The victim found that $500 in unauthorized charges had been made on a credit card, police said.
Rape arraignment set
Donre Richardson, charged in the Jan. 11 rape, robbery and unlawful imprisonment of a woman in her apartment on W. 10th St. in the Village, was scheduled for arraignment on Feb. 28, according to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Richardson, 19, arrested at his home in Brooklyn on Jan. 18, is charged with forcing his way into the victim’s apartment at gunpoint when she returned home during the early hours, robbing and raping her and holding her prisoner for more than three hours.
Albert Amateau
