Two people died in a fire that engulfed a Buddhist temple in the Bronx early Wednesday morning, the second fatal blaze in a week where responding firefighters had to navigate illegally parked cars that blocked fire hydrants, officials said.
One person died at the scene of the fire, and the other was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, according to Mark Bonilla, the Fire Department’s chief of emergency medical services, who spoke at a news conference held on Wednesday at the scene, in the Tremont neighborhood of the Bronx.
Both people were on the second floor of a residential building next door to the temple when the fire broke out.
Vehicles parked in front of hydrants can often slow down firefighters’ access to water, John Esposito, the Fire Department’s chief of department, said at the news conference. New York City law prohibits parking within 15 feet of either side of a fire hydrant, and people can be fined $115 for doing so.
“Our firefighters are very well-trained. But certainly if those hydrants were not blocked, it’s a little bit of a smoother, quicker operation for us,” Chief Esposito said.
“We all know we should not be parking on fire hydrants,” he added. “Seconds count when we’re fighting fire.”
Officials have not released the names of the victims. The fire began in the residential building next to the one that contained the temple, fire officials said. The cause was still under investigation, Chief Esposito said.
The blaze began around 6 a.m. on Wednesday and quickly swept through both buildings, which are on Anthony Avenue near 180th Street, officials said. Within minutes, at least 150 firefighters and emergency workers were on the block battling, flames, heavy smoke and freezing cold temperatures.
Letty Puello, a 60-year-old woman who lives on the fifth floor of an apartment building next to the temple, said she was asleep when she heard a man screaming, “fire!”
Ms. Puello said she and her husband, her daughter and 1-year-old-grandson fled their apartment. Not hearing the sound of fire alarms, Ms. Puello began banging on her neighbors’ apartment doors as she ran down the stairs.
Hours later, when she returned to the block, Ms. Puello saw her window had been shattered. “It’s so scary,” she said as she stood near the blackened remains of the temple.
Denise Scott, who lives in the neighborhood, was walking down Anthony Avenue with her dog, Foxy, when she saw the building engulfed in flames.
“It just spread so fast, I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “You would have thought somebody had a match and just said, ‘Poof!’ That’s how fast it went up,” she said.
At the earlier fire, which broke out early Sunday morning in an apartment building in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, firefighters struggled to access water because the two closest fire hydrants were blocked by two parked vehicles, the Fire Department said. Three people were taken to a hospital, and one was later pronounced dead there.
“I’m begging New Yorkers in all five boroughs: Please do not leave your cars on hydrants,” Fire Commissioner Robert S. Tucker said on Sunday. “Cars parked on hydrants are part of the reason we have the outcome that we have here today.”
The Fire Department also released a public safety announcement this week urging New Yorkers to avoid blocking fire hydrants. “It could be a matter of life and death,” the announcement says.
Blocked fire hydrants have always been a bane for firefighters, said Glenn Corbett, an associate professor of fire science and public management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Mr. Corbett said that there have been times when firefighters have broken car windows and run hoses through parked vehicles. “That makes a statement, and I can tell you, in the fire service, it puts a smile on a lot of guys’ faces,” he said.
Parking can be difficult to find in the Bronx neighborhood where the fire on Wednesday occurred, residents said.
Ms. Puello said she wasn’t surprised to learn that a car had been parked in front of a fire hydrant. She sympathized with the car’s owner. “It sucks, I feel sorry for them,” she said.
“The city needs to work on the problem because that’s a big issue here, the parking,” she said, adding that the last time she looked for parking, it took her more than two hours to secure a spot.
Cesar Rosa, 59, who has lived on the block for four decades, said the fire hydrant in question is almost always blocked by parked cars.
“Most of the time there’s one car there,” he said. “They pay the ticket, whatever, but they don’t care.”
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