East Village apartment fire
Posted Apr 9, 2012 2:19 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An elderly woman has been taken to hospital in critical, life threatening condition after a fire at a highrise apartment complex in the East Village.
The first call to the building at 5th Street southeast and 7th Avenue came in just before one this afternoon. Crews quickly pulled a second and then a third alarm.
The fire started in the kitchen of a 9th floor unit. Smoke spread quickly upwards through the ventilation system. Fire crews assessed the situation, and evacuated the entire 9th floor and apartment above the fire that were being filled with smoke.
Rick lives on the 16th floor and says alarms go off all the time, but this was different. “I could see some smoke coming up from below me, and I thought it didn’t smell like barbecue smoke. So I stepped out onto the balcony and looked down and I and I saw smoke coming out of that unit. Right away I got into the stairwell and as I was walking down and I get to the 9th floor stairwell, you could just see the smoke pouring out.”
Along with the elderly woman critically injured, another patient could be taken in to hospital.
The fire is now out. There is no word on the extend of damage.
