Residents are counting their blessings after a Saturday afternoon fire tore through a garage and destroyed at least one vehicle on City Island.<\/p>\n
The fire sent\u00a0thick, black\u00a0smoke\u00a0that was visible from Orchard Beach and prompted a large emergency response.<\/p>\n
The fire broke out shortly before 1:45 p.m. on Minnieford Avenue, where video from the scene showed bright orange flames engulfing\u00a0the garage as heavy smoke rose into the sky.<\/p>\n
The garage was heavily damaged and at least one car was destroyed.<\/p>\n
Neighbors at the American Legion post next door said they heard what sounded like multiple explosions before they realized a fire had broken out nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were setting up for a party in the American Legion and heard a loud explosion and then another one, so we went outside and\u00a0that\u2019s when we could see the smoke and the fire,\u201d said Matt Butterworth, a neighbor.<\/p>\n
Some residents said they attempted to help before firefighters arrived.<\/p>\n
Scouse, a longtime City Island resident, said neighbors grabbed a garden hose in an effort to slow the spread of the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the garden hose… it\u2019s the first thing you grab… just a quick sprinkle to help save it,\u201d Scouse said.
Neighbors said firefighters arrived within minutes, with multiple fire trucks filling the block as crews worked to bring the fire under control.<\/p>\n
In all, more than 20 units and nearly 80 fire and EMS personnel responded to the scene.<\/p>\n
Officials said\u00a0crews brought the fire under control in less than an hour.<\/p>\n
Scouse said the response left him especially grateful for first responders.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father is a retired fire captain in the Bronx. They are my heroes. They\u2019re\u00a0the best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
James Goonan, a longtime neighbor, said he was relieved the homeowner was not injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cNice gentlemen been here since I was a kid… always known him. I grew\u00a0up with one of his boys and always been a nice guy helping out with different things,\u201d Goonan said.<\/p>\n
Other neighbors expressed relief that no one was hurt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank God everyone is safe and nobody got hurt,\u201d one resident said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy to see homeowner is alright,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad he was\u00a0OK and hope there was nobody in the house or nothing happened to\u00a0[sic]\u00a0his car,\u201d a third neighbor said.<\/p>\n
Fire officials said no injuries were reported.<\/p>\n
A cause of the fire was still unknown as of Sunday Morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents are counting their blessings after a Saturday afternoon fire tore through a garage and destroyed at least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-273290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}