A quick update on the 240 E. Houston fire

Just a quick update on the fire from last Thursday at 240 E. Houston... As I mentioned, Discovery Wines reopened last Friday... Kelly's is also open, though the Double Down next door is still "closed for renovations" (it was closed even before the fire...)...and the nail salon around the corner on Houston remains closed...

As for Discovery, here are a few shots from the fire's aftermath...



[Top two photos courtesy of Bill Farrington]



The Discovery folks are babysitting the fish for some displaced neighbors from the fifth floor...

240 Houston fire update

This morning on Houston and Avenue A... workers had boarded up the windows on the top floors...




Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo has an update on the fire here...it's still under investigation...and tenants were allowed back in briefly yesterday to retrieve valuables, including pets. Two cats were found safe in a second-floor apartment.

Previous coverage here.

Discovery Wines back open

The four-alarm fire at 240 Houston on Thursday evening shuttered several businesses... One of them, Discovery Wines, reopened last night. EV Grieve reader BaHa said that there is a lot of ceiling damage, so the overhead lights are out. They are getting by with clip-on lights. However, the refrigeration is working...

Tim from Discovery Wines left this comment for us:

We feel so very lucky to have only water damage and smoke odor.

We must have dumped over 300 gallons of water between last night and this afternoon -- I've never been so happy about a leaking ceiling in all my life!

We've still got a lot of electrical work to straighten out, but we reopened at 5:30 tonight (Friday).

Best of luck to our displaced friends and neighbors and a big thank you to the firefighters who saved lives last night.

All fire coverage here.

The 240 Houston fire on video

A passerby, Sheryl Jordan, captured yesterday's fire on video... there are five parts... here are the first three... You may access all of them via her YouTube page.

The $500 shot

Josh Spear took the first photo from yesterday's fire that showed the extent of the fire at 240 Houston ...

(Via Twitpic.)



The Post published his photo today...



Per Josh's Twitter feed, he negotiated a $500 fee for use of the photo from the Post ... and he is promptly donating the money to the FDNY Foundation.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More on the fire at 240 Houston

All coverage here.

Assessing the fire damage this morning at 240 Houston

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Chris for this photo from a little earlier this morning ...



Meanwhile, BoweryBoogie has a roundup of media sources on the fire ... The Lo-Down has some nice shots too from yesterday.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More on the fire at 240 Houston

All coverage here.

Report: Eight firefighters injured this evening at 240 Houston

According to the Times:

Nearly 140 firefighters were sent to battle the blaze, which caused no deaths or major injuries but spread anxiety throughout the neighborhood. Eight firefighters had minor injuries, including burns and smoke inhalation.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More on the fire at 240 Houston

After the fire: Double Down, Kelly's and Discovery Wines closed; grocery open

Things seem oddly normal tonight on Avenue A below Second Street...a few hours back, of course, some 180 firefighters were on the scene battling the blaze at 240 Houston and Avenue A...

On the east side of A between Second Street and Houston...the storefronts that were directly impacted by the fire... the Double Down looks open, but the sign on the door says otherwise... [Updated: Double Down was already closed for renovations before the fire.]



Kelly's and Discovery Wines are shuttered...



And, the one place that I thought would be closed, was open... Houston Deli & Grocery on the corner... According to the manager, "We were very lucky," he said. "But I don't know for how long. At any minute, water could come through the ceiling."




Meanwhile, at the entrance to 240 Houston, fire and Red Cross officials were on hand to help any displaced residents...



Previously on EV Grieve:
More on the fire at 240 Houston

More shots from after the fire

Many thanks to EV Grieve reader Krikor for sharing these photos... (Via Flickr)








Previously on EV Grieve:
More on the fire at 240 Houston

After the fire

Check out Jeremiah's photos (like this one) of the firefighters after batting the blaze at 240 Houston.

Previously on EV Grieve:
More on the fire at 240 Houston

BoweryBoogie is also on the scene. He overheard a firefighter say the whole roof is gone at 240.

The Lo-Down is there too. They're reporting all the residents were safely evacuated.

More shots of 240 Houston

[Via Josh at Twitpic]


[Via BeChicMag]

As the top photo shows, the fire has been brought under control... no word yet on any injuries... Every says how quickly the fire department responded...

Rooftop view of the 240 Houston fire

These spectacular shots via Josh at Twitpic.

More on the fire at 240 Houston

I noticed that scaffolding recently went up here at the site of the fire, 240 Houston ... And Gothamist points to a complaint here via the DOB dated June 22:

SCAFFOLDING IS BEING INSTALLED ON THE SIDEWALK, THEY HAVE INSTALLED FOUR OF THE SUPPORTS ON THE PROPERTY OF 244 E HOUSTON WITHOUTPERMISSION AND THERE ARE NO PERMITS/PLANS POSTED FOR THE CONSTCTN

Walking toward the fire

I was walking south on First Avenue and 10th Street when I heard the helicopters... and then I saw the smoke coming from what turned out to be 240 Houston. Walking there, a few people walked out of storefronts... "Where's the fire? Where's the fire?" No one could tell, just yet...

The milled glass and "shocking Ferrari red" walls coming to the Bowery; "like a beacon"

There's plenty of activity at 257 Bowery, just a wee south of Houston, these days. The Times checks in today on this future home of the Sperone Westwater gallery. The world-renowned Norman Foster is designing the eight-story "sliver of a building," as the Times notes.

Sliver, eh? So "Foster’s solution was a giant elevator, measuring 12 by 20 feet, that would not only transport art and visitors from floor to floor but serve as an exhibition space as well." And they talk to the man himself.

While the elevator could fit up to 240 people, only a few are expected to occupy it at a time. It will move more at a rate of 50 feet per minute, rather than the more typical speed of 150, to allow time for people to admire the art inside.

[Th]e elevator will have the same polished concrete floors and white walls as the stationary galleries, and it will be possible to park it on one or another of the floors to extend its space.

Because the building will be sheathed in milled glass and the elevator exterior walls colored a shocking Ferrari red, the moving gallery will be visible from outside, a "dynamic element of the facade inside this translucent tube," Mr. Foster said.

[Gallery co-founder] Angela Westwater sees this feature as "like a beacon, like a lighthouse," she said.

And the Times had the following photos:





For further reading on 257 Bowery:
Jeremiah's Vanishing NY (A look back at what used to be here...)
Curbed
BoweryBoogie
The Observer