Fire at 17th Street and 5th Avenue
[nggallery id=”50892″ template=galleryview] A reader just sent in these photos of a fire that broke out at the Associated Grocery Store as well as the apartments above it at 17th Street and 5th Avenue. There’s heavy smoke, tons of fireman, and the streets are blocked from 18th Street to Prospect Avenue. Gothamist Maps shows the…
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A reader just sent in these photos of a fire that broke out at the Associated Grocery Store as well as the apartments above it at 17th Street and 5th Avenue. There’s heavy smoke, tons of fireman, and the streets are blocked from 18th Street to Prospect Avenue. Gothamist Maps shows the fire broke out at 12:40 p.m., but we don’t have any more details yet. Anyone know what happened?
yes open source is my little baby or better mine and my husbands. i will start to facebook and tweet as soon as things are not quite as crazy. so check back at http://open-source-gallery.org . if anybody knows of something temporary or permanent (storefront), please let me know. but also sublets for our tennants please let us know.
Yes, the gallery was gutted as well as the apartments above it.
My video of the fire and the resulting damage:
http://tinyurl.com/2esr99k
(first item in the set is the video)
It seems the broiler exploded in the basement. The whole building is destroyed and there is a lot of damage to the building behind as well ( and to the side. I walked by at 12 noon and it firemen, emt workers, police, etc had just arrived. I went by again at 11 30pm, and firemen were still working hard.
This is the gallery and house next door that looks like it was destroyed (from the open source gallery website):
“THE FOUNDERS:
Founders, Gary Baldwin and Monika Wuhrer are husband and wife and live next door to the Open Source Art-Stadium with their three sons, Oskar, Hugo, and Peter. Gary hails from the great state of Texas where he received a Bachelor of the Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Gary came to New York City in 1994 to study at the School of Visual Arts, where he earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Photography and related media. Monika is from the Alps, the Austrian ones, and after studying in Milan, Italy, returned to her native country where she completed her Masters of the Arts in sculpture from the Academy of Vienna. Neither Monika nor Gary is intent on leaving Brooklyn soon.”
Maybe a good time try to support them with whatever rebuilding plans they have.
It also looks like the little gallery next door on 17th, where they also do kids activities, and the brownstone next door to that were very badly damaged. Believe the gallery and the home are all the same family- this whole thing is very sad.
I’m one of the residents of this building. I’ve been away on vacation since the 1st and won’t get back until the 18th. Just heard news of this from my boyfriend, who lives with me. We are in the very top floor, the bedroom of our window is above the one that had flames coming out of it in the photo on another site. My boyfriend is fine and so are my two roommates thankfully, but my two pet rats are probably lost. I have never felt so terrible before. I’m here abroad watching this happen to my friends and my possessions, with so little I could do. Can you please tell me if it looks like anything might be intact in that top floor? We are the two square windows in the middle of the building, one with a fire escape and one without. I’ve lost two little lives… I hope that at least some of my things have survived.
Fire dept. still here. Streets still closed off, even to pedestrians. I had to go down to 4th ave and then come back up Prospect Ave just to go north on 5th Ave. The entire block of buildings is destroyed – the grocery store, the hair salon, the bar. All of it. It appears that the 2 northernmost apartments were spared, but everything else is in complete ruins. Horrifying sight.
“Broke out at 12:40 PM”
I was there before 12:30 and it was fully ablaze.
Looked real bad from the get go. Must have had something to do with the compressors of the HVAC systems.
Within 15 minutes smoke and flames were shooting from every part of the building.
I feel real bad for all effected.
The store owner and his crew were great and those poor folks in the apartments have lost everything.
Streets still blocked, firemen still spraying water, still plenty of smoke. Red Cross is here, as is the gas company and TWC. My heart really goes out to those who lost their homes today.