From The New York Shitty Inbox: Fire At 832 Manhattan Avenue?

Peter (who sent me the above photos) writes:

hello miss heather-

I was having coffee this morning and happened to notice an enormous cloud of blackish smoke pass by my window on Leonard Street.  It appeared to be a pretty serious fire on Manhattan Ave near Calyer that had both the entire neighborhood and what seemed like the entire NYC fire department on the scene.  Attached are some iphone pictures of what was going on.  I emailed them from my phone so some might be sideways. My apologies.
No problems, Peter. That’s what Photoshop is for! Does anyone have the 411 on what happened? If so please share via comments or email at: missheather (at) thatgreenpointblog (dot) com. In closing I have to wonder if perhaps this (which I culled from the Department of Building’s web site) has anything to do with this most unfortunate incident.
I suppose it should also come as no surprise that Mr. Marek also has an outstanding ECB violation for work without a permit. For what, you ask? The “extension” which appears to be the source of this fire. Fascinating.
Miss Heather
UPDATE, 10:45 p.m.: another witness has come forward! Erin writes:
We happened to be home today, and saw the smoke from the fire right as we were leaving the newly re-opened 3-Decker Restaurant after breakfast.  (BTW, I can’t really make out anything different about the diner…can you?)

We got there right after fire trucks arrived, and witnessed a somewhat dramatic rescue of 2 hipsters climbing down the truck ladder from their 3rd story window.

We initially thought that the fire was mainly on the roof, from that crappy addition on top of the building, but it appeared that the firemen were concentrating on the empty 2nd floor apartment, which looked like it was in the midst of a renovation.

It looked like total apartment destruction for those unhappy 3rd floor residents.  We hope they had renter’s insurance.  Their cat almost jumped out of the 3rd floor window, but was barely stopped by a fireman and a window screen.  Sad situation.  Seems like that landlord is the type of guy to do a shoddy renovation, so probably an electrical fire?

Comments

5 Comments on From The New York Shitty Inbox: Fire At 832 Manhattan Avenue?

  1. sirmaamsir on Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 12:11 am
  2. Hey. That was me climbing down that ladder out of my 3rd story apartment. And I’m not a hipster. I’m a butch dyke. But thanks for playing.

  3. missheather on Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 10:18 am
  4. @siraamsir: I hope you’re alright— and that the damage was minor enough you were able to go back to your apartment! I’m really sorry you had to go through this but I do have to wonder about the quality of work being done in your building. I mean, we’re talking about someone who tried to build a new floor on his building with no permits whatsoever.

  5. sirmaamsir on Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 10:38 am
  6. @missheather Thanks for your support and for posting about it! Those pictures are insane. I completely agree with you on the construction issue – completely ridiculous.

  7. missheather on Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 10:52 am
  8. No problem. I cringe whenever I walk by this building and see that excrescence on the roof (which as much as I can tell has become a hangout of choice for pigeons). It really does showcase what is wrong with the Department of Buildings— this building is in a LANDMARK DISTRICT for chrissakes. At least the guy got a permit to remove the damned thing. Let’s just hope he doesn’t wreck the whole building when he does.

  9. Long-time Local Girl on Sun, 5th Sep 2010 12:53 pm
  10. Stalled expansion project – framework on roof sitting dormant for months….
    Accumulation of violations & fines for construction without required permits….
    Apparently having problem renting available space – I seem to remember that banner’s been hanging on building for awhile now….

    Hopefully there is an investigation – & follow-up – into CAUSE of this fire???

    (my deepest sympathies to the residents )

    “Long-time Local Girl”

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