By Joy Bergmann
A massive contingent of emergency fire and rescue vehicles took over West End Avenue between 74th and 75th Streets Sunday afternoon around 1:40pm, answering an “all-hands” call for a fire at 305 West End Assisted Living. The senior residence has approximately 250 occupied apartments, according to a staffer standing outside the building.
“There was an apartment fire on the 11th floor. Nobody was home at the time of the fire,” FDNY Deputy Chief Saccavino told WSR at the scene. “Nobody was injured except one member from the fire department.” He added that no evacuation of residents would be needed and that the fire did not extend beyond the one apartment. The cause is under investigation. “There was no outward cause that we could immediately determine,” he said.
A faint odor of smoke floated in the humid air, but no other indication of damage or distress was visible from the street. First-responders had been ready for any eventuality. According to FDNY, 12 units and 60 firefighters responded. Additional support vehicles including MERVs [major emergency response vehicles for transporting large numbers of people] and NYPD units lined the avenue for 90 minutes.
Thank you for reporting this. I was so disturbed by the number of sirens, plus it seemed to go on forever, that I thought an entire building must have gone up in flames. What an amazing response this was! I hope the firefighter has a speedy recovery. 🙂
HelenD:
I – too – was in a state of continuous anxiety yesterday, hearing the constant wail of sirens.
Glad no one (with the exception of a fireman) was seriously hurt and hope for his (her?) speedy recovery.
Kudos to our New York Fire Department.
What times we’re living in….
Diane
our firefighters are so awesome…. ever grateful for their dedication and skill..
I don’t know what’s in the air today, but as of now (6:00) there are fire trucks, a fire chief, ambulances, and police cars at the subway station on 72nd & B’way and I hear more coming in. I hope it’s nothing serious.
According to Citizen app someone was on the track at the subway station
Thanks for the info, I’ll check out the app. I’ve seen fire trucks at the station several times during the last couple of months but it didn’t occur to me that it would be anything but a fire.
Glad none of the seniors were hurt. There are, I think, some locked memory floors in that facility and a fire could have been disastrous.
Um, sorry, what is a “locked memory floor”?
People with advanced Alzheimer’s or similar illnesses are sometimes provided care on units where you can’t come and go freely, because of the high risks of their wandering off in confusion. Mechanisms for accomplishing this vary, but any situation where a person can’t simply flee a fire if necessary obviously carries its own risks.
For dementia patients
Felt awful for complaining about the 90+ degree heat yesterday after seeing so many firefighters in full gear running into this building. Hope the one who was injured is recovering, please keep us posted if you find out more.
Fdny doesnt skimp on ever more rare fire calls but they massively underfund, understaff and underresource the EMS operation they took over in the 90s.EMS does 10x the call volume with 1/5 the personnel and earn half as much as the cookbook writing, calendar posing firemen. Why? Maybe bc EMS is diverse like NYC and FF is 99% white guys.
Please ask the question. How much money does the city pay for the housing? By month week whatever? I recall years ago hearing it is way more than anything the hotel gets normally. Also hotels in NYc have for years housed a floor for homeless btw. The Excelsioreven when I stayed in 2018 hasd one whole floor for the homeless. I wonder if they will go all homeless. But what amount paid of taxpayer money?