Fire on a Tuesday Morning

“I woke up to sirens and flashing lights through my window,” said Lisa Stephenson. She and other neighbors on 107 Street on the Upper West Side found that a  six-story apartment building had gone up in flames. “At first I thought it was my building since I had been woken up,” Stephenson said. 

The fire left three 3 people injured, including a firefighter who responded to the four-alarm fire.  The fire started at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday December 9th and took two hours to get under control, according to the FDNY chief of fire safety operations. During that time, the scene outside the building was filled with FDNY and EMS workers. “I saw a ton of firemen outside,” said Andre Jameson. FDNY said it dispatched 140 people to put out the fire and help those injured.

“I couldn’t believe how much stuff was on the floor afterward,” Jameson added, “That building fell apart at the top.”

The structure of the building was apparently badly damaged. Near the end of the work, firefighters were ordered out of the building because it seemed unsafe.

The next morning, neighbors continued to gather to take pictures and wonder about their own safety. “It makes me worry about the integrity of my own building,” Lisa Stephenson said.