The Grand Concourse was shut down as a five-alarm fire devastated a Mount Eden apartment complex overnight in the late hours of Saturday, October 5.
The six floor building at 1555 Grand Concourse was reported ablaze just before 10 p.m., when 200 units and 44 EMS personnel began to arrive, blocking off much of the thoroughfare between East 172nd Street and Mount Eden Parkway.
FDNY members utilized two ladder units to access the roof from the Grand Concourse, where the extinguishing operation had began.
“The building has multiple sections, the fire started on a top floor apartment and spread to the cockloft space and multiple sections of the building,” said FDNY Chief of Operations Thomas Richardson at the scene of the fire.
The FDNY indicated that area units concentratred on was the building’s middle section, above the front entrance.
Richardson continued to explain that the operation was attempting to open up hot spots throughout the roof in efforts to extinguish the flames of the intense fire.
Specifically, the fire is believed to have started in unit 6W and was accidentally caused by an electrical issue, according to the FDNY. The unit had smoke alarms present and operational, the department confirmed.
New York’s Bravest brought the fire under control a few minutes before midnight with seven non-life threatening injures reported to firefighters in addition to one civilian who sustained minor injuries.
Shortly after the fire was under control that the Grand Concourse had reopened overnight.
