The FDNY has an urgent message for every New Yorker living in an apartment building.
“Closed doors save lives,” First Deputy Commissioner Dan Flynn said.
What You Need To Know
Officials gathered Thursday to show just how fast flames and smoke spread when an apartment door is left open during a fire
It’s a decision they say has cost dozens of lives in recent years
The presentation also focused on a second recent fire on East 187th Street in the Bronx, where two more people died last month
Officials gathered Thursday to show just how fast flames and smoke spread when an apartment door is left open during a fire. It’s a decision they say has cost dozens of lives in recent years.
“We’ve seen it too often. We’ve seen it in Twin Parks, we saw it in Prospect Avenue in the Bronx,” Flynn said.
Those two Bronx fires alone killed 30 people.
And last month, three more died in a fire on Dyckman Street in Upper Manhattan, officials said.
City law requires apartment doors in many multi-family buildings to self-close. Officials say if residents’ doors don’t, then to report the issue to 311.
The presentation also focused on a second recent fire on East 187th Street in the Bronx, where two more people died last month.
Outside that same building Thursday, former tenants who lost everything in that fire were fighting for one small piece of it back, their cats trapped inside for weeks.
After hours of protests, rescuers finally emerged carrying a dusty cat named Richie.
It’s a reminder of everything a fire can take. The FDNY says a closed door could prevent the next one.