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Suspicious Four Alarm Fire Ravages Building

Huge flames engulfed a mostly Jewish apartment building in Crown Heights last night; the very same building that had a serious fire this past Shavuos. Officials are saying the fire is suspicious because of how quickly it spread.

The fire broke out at around 2:30 Monday morning at the 4 story 200×100 building at 1365 Carroll Street and Kingston Avenue, which also houses a dormitory for girls.

Due to working smoke detectors, the girls were alerted to the fire and helped get most of the residents out of the building safe, but some had to be rescued and treated at the scene.

The flames started on the second floor, in an apartment belonging to Mordechai Gil, which is being renovated. The fire on Shavuos broke out in the very same apartment. No one was in the apartment at the time.

So fierce were the flames that the fire quickly burnt out the second floor apartment – again, and moved on up to the third floor, and then further up to the fourth floor too.

Eyewitnesses told CrownHeights.info that Shimon Liberow, a local handyman who happened to be passing by, quickly climbed the fire escape and alerted sleeping residents to evacuate the building.

Scores of firefighters responded and fought the blaze for over two hours until they gained control over it, but not before suffering as many as 20 injuries among their ranks. One firefighter suffered severe burns to his neck and is currently listed in critical condition.

Also present at the fire were Hatzalah volunteers, who helped treat some of a firefighters and about 11 residents of the building, as well as a group of Shomrim volunteers who assisted the displaced residents – handing out bottled water and arranging places to stay in houses nearby. It was raining pretty hard and they put a roof over many people’s heads that night.

The fire was declared under control shortly before 5:00am.

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16 Comments

  • Suspicious ?

    There is no suspicion here just negligent
    Major renovation in the building yet there is no permit posted anywhere
    7 activ boiler violations
    Who is the manager of this disaster ?

  • Concerned resident

    I don’t understand why the cats were left in the building and not evacuated with the rest of the people….according to the fire department between 15-20 cats got burned alive….I don’t understand why theres no article about it!!!!!

  • Resident

    To #10: there were not 15-20 cats! I don’t know where you got your information from. There was 1 cat that unfortunately was in one of the apartments that went up in flames. There was no way of reaching it.

  • how are the injured?

    I pray that they make a complete recovery
    thank you Hashem and Your messengers in the FDNY

  • Concerned resident

    To #13 If you don’t know the facts don’t comment…..your are right there was one cat in the apartment that went up on flames. Their was also 6 cats on the roof, and atleast 8 in the hallway on the third floor that the residents refused to evacuate even though the fireman gave direct orders to do so. There was one cat that jumped from a window and made it alive. It’s just crazy that their are so many articles and pictures about the fire and nothing in the news about the cats.

  • ill tell you where the water is # 8!!!

    at # 8,,,FDNY operates from inside the building not by shooting hoses into a window like in the movies,, they take a more aggressive and much more dangerous approach which is why they are the best in the world at what they do and also why 3 fireman went to the burn center after this fire