Friday, October 5, 2018
A look at the fire-damaged Uogashi; plus video of when the fire started at 188 1st Ave.
[Photo by JK Clarke]
As you likely know, what would eventually be a six-alarm fire broke out in the early morning hours Wednesday at 188 First Ave. between 11th Street and 12th Street.
FDNY officials have said that they believe the blaze started on the ground floor, which is occupied by the sushi restaurant Uogashi.
As these photos by Steven yesterday show, Uogashi, which opened here in December 2016, sustained major damage...
[Photo of the damaged rear-portion of Uogashi by Hillary Johnson]
It's too early to know when, or if, the restaurant might return. Uogashi's website is currently offline, and their voice-message system is full. No. 188 remains under a full-vacate order.
The FDNY is continuing their investigation, and have not publicly announced the cause of the fire.
Meanwhile, EVG reader Hillary Johnson, who lives near 188 First Ave., shot this video showing the start of the fire just before 2 a.m. (Firefighters had already been called, and were en route to the scene.)
In the video, you can see that the rooftop ventilation fan on No. 188's setback is on fire.
In total, there were 17 reported injuries, including 14 firefighters. The victims mostly sustained minor injuries, according to published reports.
Friday, March 24, 2023
Paying tribute to the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911
The Triangle Waist Company was located on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place just east of Washington Square Park, where the commemoration ceremonies take place today (3/24). Find more details at The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition website.
Saturday, December 12, 2020
Report: Faulty wiring caused fire that destroyed SE corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street
BFI sources say witnesses in the area first started smelling smoke around Midnight, Saturday. However the first 911 call wasn’t until hours later when a @nyctaxi driver saw flames rising from 48 E. 7 and pulled over to report it.
— 𝐌𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐍. 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 (@MylesMill) December 12, 2020
Monday, March 30, 2015
Reader report: Small fire temporarily KOs Tuome on East 5th Street
Yesterday morning, the FDNY reported to a fire at 540 E. Fifth St. (The address was actually 536.)
MAN ALL HANDS 540 E 5 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON 1ST FLR,
— FDNY (@FDNY) March 29, 2015
[Photo via @salim]
The FDNY gave the all clear after 30 minutes … however, according to a resident in the building, there was some damage to the kitchen at Tuome, the well-regarded restaurant that opened last August.
Per the resident: "Tuome is gone for at least a week, maybe more. It was an oil fire from their kitchen that had started as early as 7am when I smelled it from upstairs."
The restaurant was closed last night during normal business hours. We weren't able to track down anyone to verify the length of the closure. There isn't any mention of the fire on the Tuome website or social media properties.
The only noticeable remainder from the fire on the outside is…
@evgrieve building and street calm now. A little damage to the vault at tuome: pic.twitter.com/WoCEIUU3Iw
— Salim (@salim) March 29, 2015
Minca Ramen Factory, which shares the address, was open per usual yesterday.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Another fire in the East Village
No report just yet on the cause of fire. A Curbed tipster wrote, "It appears that no one was hurt in the 4 alarm blaze thanks to the Fire Department's speedy response (they were on the scene within 4 minutes)."
This comes on the heels of a nearby fire on March 12...this blaze occurred at 215 E. Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. Bob Arihood was on the scene and filed a report. (Be sure to read the comments to his post.) There are some other photos from this fire here at Flickr.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
Sign of Fire & Water on 7th Street
Interior renovations continue over at 111 E. Seventh St., where East Village-based restaurateur Ravi DeRossi is expanding his vegan empire with Fire & Water here between Avenue A and First Avenue.
As Eater reported back in May, DeRossi will "veganize two cuisines at once — sushi and dim sum" with Fire & Water. The restaurant, next door to his Lady Bird tapas cafe, will feature a Japanese sushi counter with 16 seats as well as a Chinese dim sum cart service in a 36-seat section.
Representation of the Fire portion of the place arrived on the front window last week...
No word on a projected opening just yet.
This address has been a retail space in recent years — a showroom for furniture designer Todd Hase for one year and the Village Style Vintage Shop before that.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: Ravi DeRossi bringing Fire & Water to 7th Street
Beer and wine notice for Fire & Water on 7th Street
Friday, March 10, 2017
Report: Former NYU student paralyzed in fall from 2nd Avenue building awarded $29 million in suit
The Post has the details:
Anastasia “Sasha” Klupchak, who was an honors student and varsity soccer player, is guaranteed the $29 million from the building owner East Village Associates after her lawyer struck an unusual deal with defense counsel on Monday.
Called a “high low settlement” the parties agreed that if the jury came back with a verdict that was less than $13 million, the defense would pay $13 million; but if they arrived at a figure over $29 million, the landlord would cough up $29 million.
The pre-verdict deal means the award cannot be appealed.
Klupchak, 22 at the time in 2008, was visiting a friend at 82 Second Ave. between Fourth Street and Fifth Street. She and her friend went out on the fire escape to smoke around midnight. When attempting to re-enter the apartment, "she fell through an unguarded opening in the fire escape platform." The 12-foot fall left her paralyzed from the waist down.
The landlord at the time, East Village Associates, was found liable "because a 1949 law prohibited the type of fire escape on the building." One of the six jurors found that Klupchak "was at least partially responsible for her injuries." She had been drinking on the evening of her fall, and the landlord's attorney said "that she treated the fire escape like a balcony instead of an emergency escape route."
Her attorney, Thomas Moore, noted that there was no provision in the lease that said tenants couldn’t hang out on the fire escape. He also got the landlord, Bernard McElhone of East Village Associates, to admit under cross examination that “tens of thousands of New Yorkers regularly” hang out on the structures.
Klupchak, who went on to pursue a Ph.D. in film studies at Emory, now teaches at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta.
As for the building, Icon Realty bought the property from East Village Associates in January 2013 for $3.1 million. Icon flipped the building in late 2015 to a South Carolina-based investor for $10.9 million.
“She cried with joy and [thanks]. She just kept saying, ‘I don’t believe it'” https://t.co/5FQCDjZFz6
— New York Post Metro (@nypmetro) March 8, 2017
Google Street View image from 2008
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Updating: Fire reported on the rooftop at Kiehl's on 3rd Avenue
MAN ALL HANDS 109 3RD AVE, MIXED OCCUPANCY FIRE ON THE ROOF,
— FDNY (@FDNY) August 27, 2015
The address is Third Avenue at East 13th Street. In the building that houses Kiehl's. The rooftop features the cottage-style penthouse.
[EVG file photo]
Fire on 13th & 3rd. NYFD handling it. Hope no one is hurt. pic.twitter.com/MMblm6oU40
— Connor Scalleat (@connorscalleat) August 27, 2015
Here's a photo from 4 p.m. via William Klayer...
Updated 4:07
That nice EV penthouse on 13th St. & 3rd Ave. that was just sold is on fire! @evgrieve #eastvillage #fdny pic.twitter.com/5walmtAa44
— urban myths, legends (@urbanmyths) August 27, 2015
4:09
4:33
Via EVG reader Justin, who is at the scene: "Hard to know for sure, but it the FDNY seemed to have it under control quite well. Dozens of firefighters on the ground standing by, a couple on the ladder/bucket, and maybe only 10 on the roof. Seemed like routine work for them. It's mostly out now; no flames visible anymore."
And here's a photo via Justin from just after 4...
4:40
MAN ALL HANDS 203 E 13TH ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON THE ROOF, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNY (@FDNY) August 27, 2015
4:41
Looks like the flames are out at the @Kiehl's building and #fdny is working on hot spots. cc @evgrieve pic.twitter.com/NgEmBQerV1
— Barry Loudis (@barryloudis) August 27, 2015
5:39
The FDNY told CBS 2 that there weren't any injuries. There's no word yet on the cause of the fire.
The penthouse cottage was in contract, according to Curbed. The asking price had been $4.4 million.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Live in tranquil cottages overlooking … 3rd Avenue (but still)
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Spring into a new season tonight with the 10th annual Zoroastrian fire jumping event
[Photo from 2017 by Ryan John Lee]
Tonight marks the 10th Annual Zoroastrian Fire Jumping Event ... taking place from 6:30 to 8:30
Here's a recap via the EVG inbox...
Jumping over fire is a symbolic gesture to start a fresh new year. This tradition is celebrated for ringing in the Persian New Year and has been celebrated since at least 1700 BCE of the early Zoroastrian era. There will be music, dancing and snacks; wear your best fire-proof pants.
The Rude Mechanical Orchestra will also be playing.
I reached out to Simin Farkhondeh, a community activist and professor at the School of Visual Arts, who has choreographed and produced the event since its inception here. I started by asking her if the new location might pose any addition challenges. She also provided more background as well as her fire-jumping experiences growing up in her native Iran...
For me, this event is very spontaneous each year. It comes together because the community loves it. The very first time I did it was 2010 and people came to the garden, helped make the fires and we jumped and had a wonderfully freeing time doing it.
This year will be like every year and the change of space should not impact the experience. We strive to make it a powerful and fun and safe event.
It will be the 10th time I've worked on having this spiritually elevating, spring welcoming event. The way I experienced it in my youth, in Iran, was as a spontaneous event that the community felt necessary to do to welcome and get ready for spring. It was done without permits from any government entity or such. We would go out into the street and community members would gather tumbleweed and build fire's together. Then we would jump over them.
On my street, we had about 15 fires, from the entry of our street, down to the end of it. All the neighbors would come out. It was an energizing, freeing experience and community building, and that spirit is what I've tried to preserve each year.
It is clear that this exhilarating event speaks to people not only who come from the Zoroastrian tradition but also brings together folks from across the spectrum of cultures. What binds us is the connection to the earth and the elements.
As in past years, many people and groups are helping ...The folks from the Fireman's Garden, who have been at our event and cherish it, have generously offered their garden to us.A lot of expats from the various Middle-Eastern communities, including Armenians, Iranians and Afghans, are going to be there as well as the folks from MoRUS and Time's UP, who in the past two years have helped a great deal to make this happen.
As in the past years, the event is organized to be a lot of fun, but also safe for all members of the community, especially children and families. As in every year, I plan to have the customary dried fruit and nuts available for people to enjoy. Since about five years now, there also has been a band present at some point of the evening, so we can dance and be merry after jumping the fires and cleansing our souls from the winter blues and from last year's troubles.
Wednesday, March 20, is the vernal equinox, which marks the beginning of spring and Nowruz or New Year for people of Iran, Afghanistan and other places. We will be making ourselves ready for that.
Friday, January 5, 2024
The remains of the fire-damaged Middle Church structure have been removed
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Repost: When we almost lost St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery to a fire
The following post first appeared here on July 27, 2012…
---
[Photo via]
On July 27, 1978, a fire nearly destroyed the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, long a focal point of the community. At the time of the blaze, workers were nearly done with a $500,000 restoration of the historic church on Second Avenue and East 10th Street.
According to an account by Tom Sotor in the East Side Express:
The fire began when a workman's welding instrument ignited a section of the timber cornice, and from there the blaze spread rapidly. "Smoke was pouring out of the hell tower when we arrived," recalls one of the first firefighters on the scene. "I said to myself, 'This ceiling's going to go.' And sure as hell, there was a partial collapse." The rear section of the 50-foot high peaked roof collapsed a half-hour after the fire began.
The 75 firefighters involved with the three-alarm blaze Were faced with many other problems as well. A six-foot iron fence that surrounded the church and a graveyard on one side prevented the companies from utilizing anything but portable equipment. Consequently, a tower ladder had to be employed to spray the front and rear, while the sides of the church remained practically unassailable.
There was also danger of the 150-foot steeple collapsing. "We kept an eye on the steeple'supports," explains John J. Moffatt, the commander in charge of the fire. "If it fell, we would have had a lot of injuries."
There weren't any reported injuries... though the fire caused major damage to the church, including the loss of the roof and nine of the 23 stained-glass windows.
[Via East Side Express]
The Citizens to Save St Mark's was founded to raise funds for its reconstruction ... supervised by architect Harold Edelman. The restoration was completed in 1986, with new stained-glass windows designed by Edelman, who personally supervised the entire project, according to his obit in the Times from 1999.
And a little snippet of the history via the Church website:
The St. Mark’s Church and its yards are just a few reminders of the once vast “bouwerie,” or Dutch plantation, which Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Amsterdam purchased in 1651 from the Dutch West India Company. When Stuyvesant died in 1672, his body was interred in a vault under the family chapel he’d had built in 1660. In 1793, Stuyvesant’s great-grandson, Petrus Stuyvesant, donated the chapel property to the Episcopal Church with the stipulation that a new chapel be erected and on April 25, 1795, the cornerstone of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery was laid.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Report: Fire on E. 2nd St. sends 4 residents to hospital
The fire started shortly before 4 a.m. on the top floor of 280 E. Second Street, per the FDNY. (DNAinfo lists the address at 264 E. Second St.) The FDNY had the blaze under control within 40 minutes.
MAN ALL HANDS 280 EAST 2ND STREET, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON ROOF,
— FDNY (@FDNY) October 3, 2013
MAN ALL HANDS 280 EAST 2ND STREET, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON TOP FLR, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNY (@FDNY) October 3, 2013
DNAinfo reports that four people went to local hospitals with minor injuries. A fifth person apparently "refused medical attention at the scene."
The FDNY is investigating the cause of the fire.
Anyone with more information?
Monday, March 18, 2019
[Updated] 2 reports of fires today
• 219 Avenue B between 13th Street and 14th Street. A fire broke out in the rear of the storefront this afternoon here that houses Revision Lounge. (Thanks to EVG reader @MerMerJ for the photos!)
According to Patch, about 12 units and more than 60 firefighters responded to the scene, where they had it under control in 45 minutes. One firefighter reportedly suffered minor injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Updated:
It's bad. The patio is destroyed and the back of the lounge has major damage. No one in building was hurt. Smoke is dissipating. Power is back on.
— Revision Lounge (@Revisionlounge) March 19, 2019
-----
• 340 E. 13th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. There were reports of a fire in an fifth-floor apartment here tonight on this block...
MAN ALL HANDS 340 E 13 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON 5TH FLR,
— FDNYalerts (@FDNYAlerts) March 18, 2019
MAN ALL HANDS 340 E 13 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON 5TH FLR, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNYalerts (@FDNYAlerts) March 19, 2019
Not much information at the moment about the fire ... here are some reader photos...
[Peter M./East Village]
[Peter M./East Village]
Updated:
EVG reader Jen Pace shared this footage...
Friday, July 27, 2012
When we almost lost St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery to a fire
[Photo via]
On July 27, 1978, a fire nearly destroyed the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, long a focal point of the community. At the time of the blaze, workers were nearly done with a $500,000 restoration of the historic church on Second Avenue and East 10th Street.
According to an account by Tom Sotor in the East Side Express:
The fire began when a workman's welding instrument ignited a section of the timber cornice, and from there the blaze spread rapidly. "Smoke was pouring out of the hell tower when we arrived," recalls one of the first firefighters on the scene. "I said to myself, 'This ceiling's going to go.' And sure as hell, there was a partial collapse." The rear section of the 50-foot high peaked roof collapsed a half-hour after the fire began.
The 75 firefighters involved with the three-alarm blaze Were faced with many other problems as well. A six-foot iron fence that surrounded the church and a graveyard on one side prevented the companies from utilizing anything but portable equipment. Consequently, a tower ladder had to be employed to spray the front and rear, while the sides of the church remained practically unassailable.
There was also danger of the 150-foot steeple collapsing. "We kept an eye on the steeple'supports," explains John J. Moffatt, the commander in charge of the fire. "If it fell, we would have had a lot of injuries."
There weren't any reported injuries... though the fire caused major damage to the church, including the loss of the roof and nine of the 23 stained-glass windows.
[Via East Side Express]
The Citizens to Save St Mark's was founded to raise funds for its reconstruction ... supervised by architect Harold Edelman. The restoration was completed in 1986, with new stained-glass windows designed by Edelman, who personally supervised the entire project, according to his obit in the Times from 1999.
And a little snippet of the history via the Church website:
The St. Mark’s Church and its yards are just a few reminders of the once vast “bouwerie,” or Dutch plantation, which Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Amsterdam purchased in 1651 from the Dutch West India Company. When Stuyvesant died in 1672, his body was interred in a vault under the family chapel he’d had built in 1660. In 1793, Stuyvesant’s great-grandson, Petrus Stuyvesant, donated the chapel property to the Episcopal Church with the stipulation that a new chapel be erected and on April 25, 1795, the cornerstone of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery was laid.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
[Updated] Report of a fire at 410 E. 6th St.
The FDNY is out in full force in response to a fire at 610 E. Sixth St. at First Avenue in the Village View complex… the fire is reportedly in a 6th-floor apartment...
MAN ALL HANDS 410 EAST 6TH ST, FIRE ON 6TH FL,
— FDNY (@FDNY) July 19, 2015
… and via a reader…
Updated 1:51 p.m.
MAN ALL HANDS 410 EAST 6TH ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE ON 6TH FL, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNY (@FDNY) July 19, 2015
Updated 2:08 p.m.
We are unaware of any reports of injuries. @GregJKrieg was on the scene and posted photos of firefighters caring for a female pit bull from the building. (Not sure if the dog was in the apartment with the fire.) The dog was limp (but breathing) when firefighters removed her from the building…
After giving her water and oxygen … and applying ice packs…
She's licking at firefighters now and moving around a bunch. pic.twitter.com/s24Ojtgzb6
— Greg Krieg (@GregJKrieg) July 19, 2015
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Possible delay in emergency responses today
The following companies located in the East Village OR that respond to emergencies in the East Village will be on Building Inspection at the following times today (and every Tuesday):
E-5, E-15, E-28 — 10 AM-1 PM.
L-9, E-55, E-9 — 1 PM-4 PM.
Also:
Ladder 20, located in on Lafayette Street, but responds to emergencies in parts of the East Village, will be CLOSED today from 12:30 PM-4:30 PM due to training at the Fire Academy on Randall's Island.
And did you know that two fire companies charged with protecting the East Village were CLOSED for periods of time yesterday?
Engine 9, which is located in Chinatown (Canal Street between Allen Street and Eldridge Street), but responds into the East Village, was CLOSED yesterday from 9 AM until 4 PM for New Apparatus Familiarization Drill at the Fire Academy.
Engine 33, located in the East Village (Great Jones Street), was CLOSED yesterday from 7 PM - 10 PM for Basic Competency Critique at the Fire Academy.
E-28 was CLOSED yesterday as well from 10:45 AM - 3:40PM to pick-up and restock new rig. During this time they were not able to respond to a fire at 535 E. 14th Street, at which they are 2nd Due.