A massive inferno at an apartment building in Sunnyside, Queens, that injured 14 people and displaced more than 100 residents Wednesday was caused by a contractor who illegally torched a metal door frame in a vacant unit, fire officials said Thursday.
The intense blaze that erupted at 43-09 47th Ave. around noon Wednesday took more than four hours to contain, wrought extensive fire and water damage, and affected more than 400 people overall, according to the FDNY.
Fire marshals said the conflagration began after a contractor working in a vacant apartment on the building’s top floor used a torch to heat lead paint off the frame of a metal closet door.
They said the worker removed the plaster around the frame as soon as smoke emerged, but the flames had already begun to spread across the wood studs.
A captain who arrived on scene “realized the fire had extended further into the walls and ordered the worker to leave,” the fire department said in a post on X , formerly Twitter. “Shortly, the fire was reported to be in the cockloft, spreading across the roof.”
The biggest flames were concentrated in the middle of the building, officials said.
The owner of the contracting company, which was not identified by fire officials, was hit with multiple criminal summonses related to illegal torch use and lack of fireguards and a required certificate, fire officials said Thursday.
Deputy Assistant Fire Chief Tom Currao said Wednesday the fire was “well over a fifth-alarm” level. “Unfortunately we have very heavy fire damage throughout the building, either from the fire condition or the water that was applied,” he said.
Fourteen people, including a firefighter in serious but stable condition, were taken to local hospitals. None of their injuries were life threatening, according to the FDNY.
The American Red Cross said Wednesday it was providing emergency assistance, including temporary housing and food, to 160 people displaced by the fire.
A real estate company that shares an address with the building’s landlord, according to property records, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the contractor or fire.
Leave a Reply