Staten Island’s 5-Alarm Blaze Injures 34

A vicious 5 alarm fire tore through three townhouses on Chestnut Avenue in Staten Island, New York early this morning causing serious damage.  The fire was said to start just a bit after midnight. 200 firefighters were dispatched to the scene of the fire to combat the blaze.   The key to surviving these types of fires is an early response system.  What most people don’t know is that smoke tends to overcome the victim making escape near to impossible.  Cyber Technologies and their New York Fire Alarm Systems and New York City Fire Alarm Systems have helped even the playing field by giving people enough time to hatch out an escape plan.         

The story about the Staten Island blaze is a sad one but luckily not a tragic one.  Yes, properties, life long memories were lost but no loss of life has been reported at this moment.  The injuries are ranging from serious to minor.  The official report stemming out of Rosebank, New York are 34 injured.  23 firefighters and 11 civilians are being treated for smoke inhalation.  Of the 11 civilian 2 were children age 5 and 3.

 Their story is remarkable.  After being woken by smoke the father of the two children tossed them out from a second floor apartment window into the arms of a neighboring couple.  “The father was stuck up there .. he couldn’t do anything, black smoke was just billowing out that window”, Anthony DiSimone, who caught one kid told the New York Daily News Paper. “So I went underneath, he threw him right to me and I caught his son.”  Although a bit shaken the children were said to have been treated on the scene by emergency personnel.  Firefighter were eventually able to save the father as well.   

Authorities kept increasing resources throughout the night.  At 1:15 the blaze was categorized as a second-alarm, by 1:17 it jumped to a third-alarm, by 3:42 in the morning it had reached its peak as a five-alarm fire. By 6:30 in the morning the fire seemed to be under control. Investigations are ongoing to see where and how the fire started.   

Luckily this story had a happy ending.  Possessions can be replaced but a life can’t.  If anything this story has taught us that early detection is the key.  Chances are those neighbors who were alerted by the fire were woken up by some sort of alarm system allowing them to start knocking on peoples doors. For more information and a consultant contact Cyber Technologies and their New York FireAlarm Systems and New York City Fire Alarm Systems services today.