A fire at an apartment building in Grand Village resulted in injuries to firefighters and civilians, earlier this week.
On the morning of Monday, August 5, a multiple-alarm fire erupted at 225 McClellan Street, a 40-unit, five-story property with ground-floor retail space.
According to the FDNY, the inferno began in a grocery store on the first floor of the building before it quickly spread to the four upper floors.
In order to properly extinguish the fire, firefighters had to open up several ceilings and walls to expose the fire while using multiple hose lines. The FDNY also used a drone to obtain footage of the blaze, which helped them strategize a solution to douse the fire.
Videos on social media show firefighters on the roof of the building in an attempt to tame the blaze that lasted for over three hours.
A total of 11 individuals were injured, including eight firefighters and an infant boy. The cause of the fire was still being determined, as of press time.
The fire, which was classified as a seven-alarm fire at its peak, was brought under control at around 8:30 a.m. that morning, according to the FDNY. They also confirmed that that approximately 50 units, including 225 firefighters and emergency medical service members, responded to the blaze.
The Red Cross held a reception for the affected families at the Family School, 1116 Sheridan Avenue, providing them food, water, health, emotional support and financial assistance while offering temporary lodging to the displaced residents.
A multiple-alarm fire is part of a system based on a fire’s severity. The higher number of alarms, the more intense the fire is. When a fire is being controlled and contained, the degree of fire alarms decreases.
Earlier that morning, just before 4 a.m., the FDNY responded to a separate, four-alarm fire which erupted at 806 Freeman Street, which resulted in injuries to two firefighters and one civilian. The Red Cross registered a total of 34 families, 81 adults and 52 children for assistance between the two fires that occurred on Monday.
