by Michelle Mullen<\/p>\n
Thick plumes of black smoke blanketed parts of North Riverdale on Dec. 12 as crews of New York\u2019s Bravest battled white-hot flames sweeping through a derelict home.<\/p>\n
Reports of the fire at 5501 Palisade Ave. came in at 9:32 a.m., according to the FDNY, and it took more than four hours to get under control. Yet, the incident is shrouded in mystery. The roaring blaze broke out in the basement of a deserted building which sat empty for years.<\/p>\n
Neighbor Lara Holtz, who lives just up the hill, recalled smelling smoke that morning and initially believed it was coming from a nearby resident lighting a bonfire.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Then] I saw smoke from the roof,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really strange. The house has been empty for a long time, so it\u2019s definitely unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy Fire Chief Jeffrey Facinelli of FDNY Division 7 was among the first to arrive at the scene of the one-alarm fire, which quickly spread to other floors of the five-bedroom, five-bathroom dwelling.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took a second-alarm assignment of firefighters to come extinguish the fire,\u201d he told The Press, surrounded by more than 100 first responders crowding Palisade Ave.<\/p>\n
As the morning bled into afternoon, crews faced a series of obstacles. The deputy chief pointed to the nearest hydrant \u2014 just opposite the home \u2014 as presenting one of the earliest hurdles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found it was out of service, so we had to go to the next hydrant much further away to get to a water source,\u201d the 24-year FDNY veteran said. \u201cSo that all led up to a delay.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, was called to the scene to investigate, adding he plans to file a report with the city.<\/p>\n
However, a DEP spokesperson offered The Press a different perspective, saying officials checked the hydrant and found it \u201cis in service and functioning properly.\u201d Additionally, the agency said, a DEP supervisor and crew at the scene \u201cwere not alerted to any water supply or pressure issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perched on a cliffside, the home overlooks the Hudson River, offering sweeping views of the New Jersey Palisades. Its location, coupled with Friday\u2019s frigid temperatures with a high of 34 degrees, made it especially prone to gusty waterfront winds that fanned the flames.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to have companies coming for relief because of the cold weather and everything,\u201d Facinelli said, adding that frigid weather also posed a slip hazard. \u201cCompanies only operate so long [before we bring in new staffing to replace them].\u201d<\/p>\n
The historic Victorian home was previously inhabited by Alice and Stuart Boynton, who purchased it in 1997. It was put back on the market in 2016, three years after Alice\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Originally listed at $3.2 million, the property reached its peak asking price of $6.9 million in 2019 \u2014 less than a year after Stuart died at 90 years old.<\/p>\n
Robert Boynton, the late couple\u2019s son and executor of the estate, sold it to Palisade Rose LLC in late 2022 for $3.3 million. The Westchester-based company is tied to real estate consulting firm Carlyle Development Services. Records from the New York City Department of Buildings, or DOB, name Carlyle\u2019s chief executive officer Abdi Mahmedi as the owner of the Palisade Avenue dwelling.<\/p>\n
However, Zillow shows it back on the market in fall 2023 for $1.95 million \u2014 41 percent less than Mahmedi paid. The listing was pulled and re-posted five months later, before being withdrawn for a final time in Aug. 2024. It has not been up for sale since.<\/p>\n
The long-neglected building has been empty since at least 2022. Left to waste away for years, the unoccupied home is blighted with plywood sheets blocking its entrances and windows. These barriers presented a significant challenge to firefighters. As the fire intensified, flames climbed up the first and second floors and the attic before engulfing the roof.<\/p>\n
There were no injuries reported and no one was inside the home when fire crews arrived.<\/p>\n
Several FDNY officials at the scene surveyed the site. They have launched an investigation into the cause of the blaze.<\/p>\n
Both Mahmedi and Carlyle Development Services did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Michelle Mullen Thick plumes of black smoke blanketed parts of North Riverdale on Dec. 12 as crews…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[545,41657,75,84,83,9,24,41655,63,41656,41658],"class_list":["post-85709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-fire","tag-jeffery-facinelli","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-north-riverdale","tag-nyc","tag-palisade","tag-robert-boynnton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85709","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=85709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}