Here's a noontime look at the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Seventh Street... the former 48 E. Seventh St., which once housed Cafe Mocha and Via Della Pace in the retail spaces, is now mostly rubble... Steven took these photos...
The Middle Collegiate Church's
façade remains standing, and there is hope that it can be saved...
This is a view from Seventh Street...
Second Avenue remains closed at St. Mark's Police... the NYPD is directing southbound traffic over to Avenue A.
Updated 6:30 p.m.
A few early evening photos...
Updated 7:30 p.m.
Updated 7:30 p.m. 
10 comments:
The Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava on W25th Street is nearing the end of a rebuild after a similar inferno took out the sanctuary + roof and left outer walls standing. At the time, experienced onlookers noted the masonry may be unstable and might have to be taken down. Ultimately it seemed the masonry held up to the fire.
The intensity and effects of this fire were similar. We won't know for a bit, and the condition of the sidewalls is very concerning, but it's a decent sign that the front facade is intact and not being dismantled (even partially) at the moment. The tower and front wall are still bearing their full weight freestanding, and may be saved with a refurbishment. A lot of cleanup is needed. It's horrific that the fire was this destructive despite a rapid FDNY response.
After other historical churches have burned recently one would assume that mandatory fire control systems should be required to be installed in these type of structures.
@5:35pm: What "mandatory fire controls" exactly are you suggesting should be installed in "these types of structures" (by which you mean "houses of worship)?
Are you suggesting sprinkler systems or enormous-scaled automatic fire-extinguishers that would somehow (in your imagination) be sufficient to put out a fire of this intensity - a fire that took many hours AND large numbers of firefighters with advanced equipment to put out?
do you know of some kind of "mandatory fire controls" that the FDNY has not yet heard of?
This church has been destroyed b/c of the fire that fully engulfed the building next door to it. How could the church have prevented that fire from spreading to their building?
@John Penley: This is like asking the unsuspecting victim of a random attack why they weren't better prepared to be attacked.
Unfortunately I dont think any sprinkler or fire control setup could have prevented this. Given the inferno next door was full on fire no one realized unoccupied that late at night. Blame is 100% on that building and questionable that they already had a fire in early 2020 that vacated it. If that had been dealt with earlier maybe the church stood a chance. But is nonone smells a fire until it engulfs a space its already too late. We are lucky no residential buildings ( minus wpa, that truly sucks) were affected by this blaze
I walked past this today around 3. I cried actually. It breaks my heart. I am so sad right now for our community. A big loss. It will take time to process.
The corner building was probably burning for a long time before anyone noticed, since it was empty. Why it caught fire in the first place is a good question. So it wasn’t a “rapid response” if there wasn’t anyone to notice there was a fire. Certainly there’s updates in the fire codes that could help after a rebuild of both buildings, both actively and passively.
Stinks this morning...still smoldering...
The fire started in the tenement on the corner. If that tenement had been outfitted with sprinklers, this fire would have been contained. All of these buildings should be retrofitted with sprinkler systems. It's not that complicated, but landlords have resisted because they don't want to spend the money.
@9:46am: "All of these buildings should be retrofitted with sprinkler systems." I hope you're referring to residential buildings, b/c installing a sprinkler system in a church like Middle Collegiate would have been nearly impossible.
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