Two civilians and one firefighter were injured in a fast-moving Upper West Side fire on Tuesday morning.
According to FDNY sources, the four-alarm inferno erupted from the top floor of an apartment building located at 201 West 107 St., near Amsterdam Avenue, at 8:20 a.m. on Dec. 9. The six-story building quickly became engulfed in smoke as flames shot from the window and through the roof.
“This building is a six-story, non-fireproof building with four apartments per floor. Upon arrival, we had heavy, heavy fire on that top floor and through the roof. Fire heavily involved three of those four apartments,” FDNY Chief of Operations Kevin Woods said. “We had to remove them below that top floor and open up with tower ladders, these are large caliber streams, and able to extinguish that fire.”
FDNY officials say 40 units and 140 firefighters and EMS personnel responded to the calamity in just over three minutes. Officials quickly called a third alarm within 15 minutes and then a fourth alarm by 9:10 a.m., expanding the response as the flames grew and debris began to fly from the upper parts of the structure.
Videos circulating online show what appears to be bricks and other pieces of debris falling from the building.
The FDNY stated that part of the roof collapsed; however, they were still able to extinguish the main body of the fire.
During the response, FDNY reported that two residents and one firefighter were taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
“We had one occupant that we found on the top floor, and our firefighters were able to walk that occupant down to the street and hand over to EMS. And we had another occupant on the third floor that we walked down and handed to EMS. And we had one firefighter with a minor burn injury,” Chief Woods said.
The American Red Cross responded to the scene to help anyone who may have been displaced.
The cause of the fire is being investigated and will be determined by the fire marshal. The FDNY stated that they will continue operations throughout the day to make sure the fire does not reignite.
