By Gus Saltonstall
An Upper West Side fruit stand was destroyed Monday morning after a fire ignited, possibly caused by a space heater, according to the FDNY and eyewitnesses.
The flames ignited around 9:15 a.m. on Monday at the fruit stand on the southern corner of West 97th Street and Broadway, an FDNY spokesperson told West Side Rag. The blaze was under control by 10:15 a.m., and no one was hurt, FDNY added.
“An exploding heater set fire to and destroyed a corner fruit stand this morning,” Laura Juszczak, who photographed the incident, wrote to West Side Rag in an email.
FDNY did not confirm to WSR if a space heater was the cause of the flames at the fruit stand, which has continued to operate despite the cold, but multiple people on the Upper West Side Reddit page who were eyewitnesses to the fire also said it was related to a space heater.
“I saw it happen. His space heater caught fire. 🙁 so awful, he’s out there in the cold 12 + hours a day,” one person wrote on the UWS Reddit. Another wrote: “Walk by there all the time. In the last few weeks with the bitter cold, he’d put up a plastic tarp around the stand & had a space heater inside the plastic covering.”
You can see a photo of the Monday morning fruit stand fire — HERE.
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This vendor has been there forever clogging the corner. The City Council voted to dramatically expand the number of street vendors who get permits, whereby they will continue to operate unsafe space heaters in this manner.
They didn’t clog the corner as you put it…they sold healthy fruits and vegetables at a reasonable price. And the guys who worked there did it under some harsh conditions.
He had great fruits & veggies, excellent selection, good prices. I shopped from him all the time. I hope he is back soon. The street vendors are fantastic if you want fresh reasonably priced produce in NYC.
Yikes, maybe reflect on this for a bit. This comment does not align with the values of this part of New York City
Your compassion for a guy who just loss his hard-earned livelihood is underwhelming.
He is a nice guy, makes the corner safe, good prices. Zero inconvenience.
He’s not clogging the corner; he’s operating a small business that many people in the neighborhood use. His prices are much fairer than the grocery stores, and lots of people like this guy. He’s very nice.
Also, your comment is unclear and misuses “whereby”. (Whereby it incorrectly suggests the City Council voted to allow unsafe space heaters, therefore collapsing multiple ideas into one sentence and making the meaning confusing.)
His prices are “fairer” because he doesn’t pay the same taxes of infrastructure that grocers pay. He just squats on a public sidewalk.
Just three blocks down was Han’s market that sold similar goods for years but paid real estate taxes and also paid for a real heating system, instead of an unregulated two stroke motor powering a space heater inexplicably wrapped in plastic.
Good catch on the whereby though. Though maybe it’s a worthwhile slip because the City Council is legalizing street vendors despite the common knowledge that they break all sorts of other laws and norms.
He isn’t squatting, that’s just your bitter interpretation. He is there legally because the city allows these vendors to be there.
Does the City also allow vendors to park their supply/transportation vehicles in back of their stands for free 24/7? What other business can do that?
If only the tiny fruit vendor, freezing his blueberries off in the cold to the point of accidentally flambé-ing his bananas with a space heater, paid his fair share of taxes and rent — we wouldn’t be in this pickle with the city budget!
I mean Zohran’s really gonna have to clamp down on the totally real hundreds of thousands of these guys that clog up our city streets — the FRUIT VENDORS, NUT4NUTS nutjobs, Halal truckers, Incense dudes, phone case men, secondhand record snobs, jewelry peeps, Italian Ice mom & pops etc. to make a dent in that budget….Not that other totally fake Jeff Bezos & VC Silicon Valley powered army of delivery people actually clogging our streets to the point of literally reshaping them with taxpayer paid-for and maintained bike lanes to cart their goods around so as to nearly completely circumvent creating brick & mortar businesses that pay those taxes and rent….
It’s Bananas!
The street vendors have been here before us and will be here after us. They serve a purpose in the city. Anyone who works as hard and for such long hours for our benefit deserves a bit more respect.
I don’t go to that outdoor fruit vendor. I go to the one on 72nd & Broadway. Regardless, we all benefit from their exceptionally low prices that they are able to charge obviously because they don’t pay rent. And we see them braving these frigid temperatures in the winters, and sweltering heat in the summers. I feel so badly for this vendor and hope he can bounce back. Yes agreed that the space heater was dangerous, but can anyone blame him for using one?
They also charge low prices because they sell produce that is riper than in the groceries. They buy the produce at the wholesale market that the supermarkets won’t take, because they only want things that will keep for a week or so in their store. So they pay less for their merchandise and can sell for less. We’re really lucky to have them.
Ha. Trader Joe’s fruits and vegs last a couple of day in the fridge at best. They’re already almost over on the store shelves.
That’s more urban myth this based in fact.
Man is trying to sell fruit in horrifically cold conditions. Don’t just blame the guy. Let’s come up with a better way to heat. We need fruit. We need small vendors. They need heat.
Don’t point your finger at the person. Solve the problem.
My grandfather, who supported his family by selling fruit from a pushcart when he first came to America, solved the problem by saving until he could afford to rent a tiny, rundown store where he was not exposed to the elements twelve hours a day. That was in a time when retail rents were reasonable. Good luck to any immigrant vendor trying to afford protected space nowadays.
And we definitely need the lower prices they charge. But, if you feel strongly about it, you can always go to a supermarket and overpay for underripe produce.
Exactly!!!!
The vendors charge less for “end of life” fruit and veg. If they didn’t sell it ,it would be shown out
g
Condolences to the business owner. The margins must be very slim. I hope he is able to find a way to recover. No insurance for street vendors.
Yes, street venders serve a purpose, but they don’t pay any taxes, don’t pay fees, don’t pay rent, don’t abide by hours of operation, are using city streets that everyone else pays for and maintains for free. They also hurt legitimate businesses in the neighborhood.
People complain about free car parking on City streets but have no problem with vendors clogging the sidewalks for which they pay nothing to operate their businesses. And they have no safety issues with vehicles driving on the sidewalks to move the vendor stands.
What makes you think they don’t pay taxes? They are not informal sector, unregistered businesses. They are licensed by the City, they are identified, well known, etc. Of course they pay taxes. Many of them are employees of other business owners who actually have the licenses. I don’t know if the 96th St fruit stand is one of those – the one at 94th definitely is. (I’ve talked to the vendor about it.) Various different people work at the 96th Street stall, so I’m guessing they are also employees.
That’s a particularly good stand – in part because they are open at all hours, also because they have lights so you can see what they have when it’s dark out. I hope he will be back very soon.
Is there any way we can help him?
Try contacting the author of the article through WSR? Maybe he knows the fellow’s name, for starters. The other vendors there – the food truck – might know more about him, too.
I live near this stand. I saw that he was already re-building the fruit stand. This is resilience and the story of hardworking people – immigrant or otherwise. Someone asked how they could help. I was thinking of stopping by, talking to him and giving him some money.
I am so sorry this happened–I love that fruit stand and the guys who work there are always nice…I did notice that is seems to be getting smaller in the past few weeks. I hope they open up again and do well.