Seven civilians and five firefighters were reported injured in an apartment fire at 98 Riverside Drive off of 82nd Street early on Thursday.
The fire was in a third-floor apartment and firefighters could be seen tossing debris out of a window at the building onto the sidewalk below.
FDNY clearing debris from apartment fire, third floor of 98 Riverside Drive at 82nd in #uws. @westsiderag pic.twitter.com/iEa91Oke5f
— Joy Bergmann (@JoyBergmann) November 19, 2020
It was called in at 5:48 a.m. and necessitated a second alarm. The 12 people were taken to area hospitals and the injuries were considered non life threatening, the FDNY told us.
The fire was declared under control at 7:11 am. It’s not yet clear what caused the fire.
15+ FDNY units responding to apartment fire at 82 and Riverside on #uws. Fire appears under control now; not clear if any injuries. @westsiderag pic.twitter.com/xedISRm9Cf
— Joy Bergmann (@JoyBergmann) November 19, 2020
There were three helicopters overhead almost the entire time. Is that typical? Wondering what the reason is for them?
Good grief, thank you – I was coming back here to say I realized that’s what they were when I saw the damn ch7 coverage. They are ridiculous! An apartment fire is hardly helicopter coverage worthy, for cryin’ out loud! The ch7 chopper was there for hours the day of that crater on the West Side Highway.
They are news choppers. Yes, it’s very normal when breaking news hits near your location. I heard them and turned on the morning news to see what happened.
News coverage
40 minutes of non-stop hovering at low altitude, for 30 seconds on the Eyewitness News at 7 am….go figure.
The cause of the fire was a man who selfishly used an old space heater in a very cluttered rent stabilized apartment … I live on the 3rd floor right next to him
His comment was “it is.. what it is…”
He showed little regard for his neighbors … we are lucky it wasn’t worse ..
Obvious question, but did he need the space heater because there was no heat in the apartment?
The classism here is appalling. I understand being frustrated at the disruption to your life and the potential risk to your safety, but what pertinence did rent stabilization have to your comment other than derision? Here’s what you should know about rent stabilized apartments – (1) they fulfill a need for stable housing, especially for vulnerable populations like the elderly and (2) they are often denied basic housing needs like heating because landlords want them out and know they are vulnerable and unable or unwilling to fight in order to stay stably housed. Maybe question why he was using a space heater during mandatory heating season for NYC.
Not quite. When a landlord has rent stabilized tenants he has no economic incentive to properly maintain the building or he simply might not have the cash flow to properly maintain the building.
You get what you pay for.
“When a landlord has rent stabilized tenants he has no economic incentive to properly maintain the building or he simply might not have the cash flow to properly maintain the building.”
Nonsense. Y0u don’t see too many buildings being sold. if being a landlord is so tough, let them open their books.
Nonsense. There’s no correlation between the profitability of a building and the number of buildings being sold.
“) they are often denied basic housing needs like heating because landlords want them out and know they are vulnerable and unable or unwilling to fight in order to stay stably housed”
My guess is that most buildings on the UWS have a mixture of rent stabilized and market rate tenants. Heat is send from a boiler in the basement to everyone The boiler cannot discriminate between different classes of tenants.
Having said that I admit there are unscrupulous landlords who will try every trick to get rid of rent stabilized tenants.
With the new rent laws there is no financial advantage of getting stabilized tenants out . They only get a few pennies extra rent and there is no longer a threshold that get apartments out of stabilization….
Wednesday morning was very cold. Thursday was a little better. Is there not adequate heating in the building? I’m glad no one was seriously hurt.
This is a bigger story. Alarms did not go off until 30-45 mins after smoke was in apartments. Emergency lights did not work so there was darkness. There is no live-in super in a large Westside prewar bldg. We are understaffed. The bldg was not alerted until the fdny had the fire “under control” The so-called “fire stairs” were filled with smoke. You could not make it out of the bldg if you had to.
I live in the bldg. Two families on my floor have moved already due to the horrors they have experienced. This is a scandal that anonymous so-called REITs can make maximum profits by short shrifting the safety of tenants.
I used to not only live in this building but I used to manage it before it was sold to the REIT and began being managed by a new company. This is a union staffed building. How are the new landlords getting away with reducing the # of staff and not having a live in super. If this is the case, the residents should contact local 32BJ and find out what is going on with the staff.
A live-in super is not necessarily required. There must be someone performing those duties who lives within a certain distance form the building. I think buildings can share a super.