When the temperature goes down in New York City the risk of fire accidents increases.
Several people were injured during this long cold weekend in fires that erupted all over New York.
On Saturday morning around 10:00 am 7 people including one resident and 6 firefighters were injured in a five-alarm fire that destroyed a building located on Atlantic Avenue between New Jersey Avenue and Vermont Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Cypress Hills. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. It started in a store in the first floor and then spread to residential floors above. 20 residents had to be evacuated. One of them was injured. Among the six firefighters injured many of them suffered frost bite injuries. 13 people lost their homes.
In Queens, 1 person suffered critical personal injury and 3 firefighters were hurt in a blaze that destroyed a wholesale supply company. The fire started Monday morning around 7:45 am in the basement of a company that supplies toys and medical equipment located on 14th Avenue in College Point, Queens, NYC. Several employees were in the building. Among them a woman who was found unconscious on the floor by the firefighters. She was rushed to the hospital. She is listed in critical but stable condition. Firefighters arrived at the scene of the accident only one minute after the fire started but heavy winds of up to 40 mph caused the fire to spread quickly with heavy grey smoke coming out of the building.
Another fire erupted in a Scarsdale Mansion in New York on Sunday night. Nobody was injured but firefighters had to work in extremely difficult conditions as the temperature were freezing. The fire whipped by heavy wind lasted all night long while more than 80 firefighters were taking turns to prevent hypothermia. The work conditions were made even more difficult as hydrants got frozen and the Scarsdale Water Department workers had to be called to the rescue.