A fire, suspected arson, broke out early Tuesday morning on Evergreen Avenue, between Jefferson and Troutman. It broke out around 3:00 AM, on the first floor of a four floor apartment building and then moved upward, consuming the building. Per FDNY, a total of nine, including a child and two firefighters were injured and all have been forced to out of their homes for the time being.
Cinzia Chiesa lives next door and started a GoFundMe for the families displaced. “There are around 30 people out of housing right now,” she estimates on the page. She’s raised nearly $6,000 so far. She says she had been in her apartment when she heard the fire start.
“I started to hear voices screaming … All I saw was thick black smoke coming out of the window of the building next to mine. I saw young children and families being lifted out of their windows by the FDNY, with black smoke filling the space behind them. The firefighters were breaking every window on the front of the building.”
Unlike a recent fire which took down Bushwick grocery store and restaurant Christa’s Kitchen back in May, the cause of which remains somewhat unclear, the fire department says they’ve already announced a suspected culprit. They’re looking for a man who both “intentionally set the fire” and “held the door closed to prevent people from getting out,” according to an ABC affiliate.
“Some of the neighbors watched him do it while they were inside the house and told him to cut it out but he responded negatively to that and escalated the situation before lighting it up,” says Chiesa, who confirmed reports that the arsonist tried to stop people from escaping the fire.
“When the fire was spreading and they were trying to get out of the building, he was holding the door in opposition until one of the guys managed to push past him,” she says. After a supposed altercation outside, he fled the scene.
The fire mostly scorched the building’s back yard; the front did not appear as visibly affected, at least on the street level in the day since. The broken windows have been replaced with wooden panels and a VACATE notice from the NYC Department of Buildings hangs on the front door, as well as a large crack in the glass.
“The landlord has basically left them [the tenants] on their own and is dodging communication,” is what Chiesa has heard.
According to one report, the suspect had lived on the first floor and was not popular with his neighbors.
“All of our neighbors in that building have been complaining about the guy,” one of them told the Post, in a different report that identified the “deranged tenant” as “a man in his 60s.” He has yet to be caught.
Photos taken by Michelle Maier.
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