A five-alarm fire at an auto body shop on Bronx River Avenue off East Tremont Avenue in the Van Nest neighborhood spread to two nearby private residences Saturday, displacing more than a dozen residents, officials said.<\/p>\n
Four firefighters sustained minor injuries while battling the blaze. No civilian injuries or deaths were reported.<\/p>\n
The first call came in at 11:23 a.m., and FDNY units arrived on the scene just three minutes and 44 seconds later.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
A five-alarm fire broke out Saturday at an auto body shop on Bronx River Avenue, spreading to two nearby homes in the Van Nest neighborhood
\n
Four firefighters sustained minor injuries, and about 16 residents were displaced from six apartments
\n
Witnesses described thick black smoke and chaos as neighbors helped each other escape the flames
\n
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by FDNY fire marshals<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen our units arrived, we had heavy fire throughout this auto body repair shop, motor vehicle repair shop. We attempted to enter the building and extinguish the fire,\u201d the FDNY\u2019s chief of department said. \u201cWe did have a collapse of the building, one of the walls to the rear.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the FDNY, about 16 people were displaced from six different apartments.<\/p>\n
Fantasia Rivera said she was having an ordinary morning until she smelled smoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot, it was black, I have asthma,\u201d she told NY1. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t breathe, you couldn\u2019t breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n
After ensuring her kids and spouse were safe, Rivera helped her neighbors evacuate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to sit here and tell my neighbors in my community, let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go. I’m screaming, \u2018help me!\u2019 Screaming. That got all my neighbors to all come out here and help one another,\u201d Rivera said.<\/p>\n
Another resident, Jacy Hudson, said she lost everything in the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m devastated. I don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t know, I just got stuff to work good for me and it\u2019s all over, it\u2019s all over, it\u2019s all over. I know I\u2019m alive but damn I\u2019m tired of struggling, I\u2019m tired of going through catastrophes,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m homeless. I\u2019ve been homeless most of my life, bro. And I thought I had it but I don\u2019t. So that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the devastation, Hudson said she\u2019s trying to stay hopeful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see a rainbow. I see a rainbow right there so that must mean my luck is going to change,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Red Cross was on the scene helping residents find temporary housing.<\/p>\n
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by fire marshals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A five-alarm fire at an auto body shop on Bronx River Avenue off East Tremont Avenue in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[387,25,128,3691,9,24,12,63,308,129,131,130,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-34669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-app-public-safety","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-bronx","11":"tag-emma-barnett","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-public-safety","17":"tag-the-bronx","18":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","19":"tag-the-bronx-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34669","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=34669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}