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?
It actually started about a half-hour earlier than 12:40. I placed a 911 call as I passed by on my way to work around 12:10. People were climbing down fire escapes from the 3rd floor and the smoke was crazy. When I checked in with my nanny a little while ago, she said a neighbor told her a boiler explosion was at the root of things. Not sure that’s the official cause, though.
The American Red Cross in Greater NY is currently on the scene and determining which residents will require assistance. If you or someone you know has suffered damage due to the fire, the Red Cross may be able to provide assistance and information. Please call our 24-hour number at 1-877-REDCROSS (733-2767). For more details on our response to the fire as it happens, please follow us on twitter at twitter.com/redcrossny.
I just drove up 5th ave. about 45 minutes ago and it’s still blocked off and tons of firemen
Grocery stores have all sorts of things that burn… really well. Urrf.
Been watching this from 7th floor across the way since it broke almost 4 hours ago!!! It seems to have gone from bad to worse……yikes, I hope the fire dept knows what it’s doing cuz this did not look like it was that bad when it started.
Have they gotten it under control yet? the smell is still horrible over here!
Very bad. Just back from there. The smoke is crazy! I hope no one was hurt.
Sounds terribly suspicious. Fast moving fire like this?
Every few minutes the view from my bedroom window turns jet black and visibility goes down to zero from the smoke. My whole apartment smells like burning fabric. I don’t know that there’s enough Febreeze and lysol in the world to kill this smell.