by Samantha Sherman
Brooklyn woke up on Thursday morning to the news that three separate fires had occurred in the borough, two in the downtown area. The third fire, at a brownstone at 732 Decatur St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, proved deadly, killing 35-year old David Ortiz and injuring two other residents of the house.
According to the Daily News, police were questioning a 14-year old boy Thursday who claimed to have seen a man running from the brownstone just moments before the fire was ignited on Wednesday night.
192 Concord St.
Five firefighters were injured fighting a blaze at 192 Concord St., a historic home owned by Anthony Ibelli, who was at home with his son at the time of the blaze, which broke out around 4:35 a.m. Both of them got out safely, but the building itself was all but completely destroyed. It stood as a shell Thursday, completely gutted on the inside by the quickly spreading fire.
An official at the scene early Thursday afternoon said the cause of the fire was still under investigation. The adjacent buildings seemed relatively untouched by the blaze, though one official said that 190 Concord St. had suffered some damage in the rear of the building.
Ibelli is a very active and well-known member of the community, as a member of Community Board 2, a frequenter of the 84th Precinct Community Council meetings and a member of the Society of Old Brooklynites. Neighbors told news outlets Thursday that Ibelli's wife recently passed away.
Speaking to this paper about his home in 2008, Ibelli said the house dated back to 1836. "It's a federal house. I have six fireplaces, all tin ceilings. Only three families have ever lived in it. The Berrys (of Berry Street fame), the Belsitos, and us," he said. One friend of Ibelli's told the Eagle he had lived in the house all his life.
At least seven engines responded, including Engine 205 from the firehouse at 74 Middagh St. According to firefighter Michael Hernandez, the flames were pushing out of the first floor entrance and windows when they arrived on the scene. The flames then spread upwards to the second and third floors of the building.
Hernandez was one of five firefighters who were injured fighting the fire, two of whom were hurt when a banister collapsed on top of them, according to published reports, though a press spokesperson for the FDNY said none of the injuries was serious.
78 Montague St.
At 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning, a fire that began in the laundromat at 78 Montague St. next to Teresa's Restaurant, spread to the adjoining Montague Wine and Spirits, causing extensive damage to both structures.
According to Battalion Chief James Costello, the department received an "all hands alarm."
"We needed a lot of man power," said Costello, because after they put out the fire, firefighters had to pull down 15-ft tin ceilings with heavy 10-ft hooks.
They responded on the scene to heavy smoke coming out of the laundromat storefront. There was a "heavy body of fire in the rear," said Chief Costello, with some extension into the liquor store through the ceiling, also in the rear of the store.
At 10:30 am, seven engines and a large crowd of firefighters were still on the scene.
According to Costello, they remained at the scene for such a long time due to the aged structure of the damaged building. The laundromat has a drop ceiling underneath an old tin ceiling, causing small pockets of fire to build up along its length. The firefighters were only able to reach the flames from above, climbing on top of the roof and descending into the building.
By the time they were finished, the gray sky was visible through a hole in the blackened ceiling.
Both stores were closed when the fire occurred, so no one, including the firefighters, sustained any injuries.
The Fire Department has yet to determine what caused the blaze, and they will not know its origin for a few days. A large plank of singed wood was seen taken from the roof of the laundromat, which could be used to determine the cause of the fire.
This laundromat on Montague Street was one of the last remaining in Brooklyn Heights. There are dry cleaners sprinkled throughout the Heights, but these don't have machines for public neighborhood use.
Neighbors and patrons stood and watched from the sidewalk and across the street as Engine 112 lowered its ladder from the laundromat's roof, and soot-covered faces emerged from inside the building.
One woman exclaimed "I had five bags of laundry in there!"
As she watched the firefighters walk in and out of the charred building, she described how she has watched the owners' "darling" children grow up, and expressed her deep thanks that no one was hurt.
Said one resident of 57 Montague St., directly across from the location of the fire, "Our mom-and-pop stores are very vital to us because they know us, our neighborhood, and the products we love. I'm very sorrowful that the stores were destroyed in this morning's fire. I miss them and pray they can rebuild their business here."
-- Additional reporting by Phoebe Neidl
 |
