American Diner Owner Faces Arson Charge

The owner of the American Diner on East 204th Street in Norwood is behind the fire that destroyed his business, a Foodtown, and a dental office on Dec. 21, a Fire Department spokesman told The New York Times.

Mohammed Abdul Quadir was arrested yesterday on arson and other charges. The authorities believe he paid another man, Christopher J. Gooding, about $2,000 to start the blaze. Gooding has also been arrested.

Quadir, who is up to his eyeballs in debt, had recently taken out a $500,000 insurance policy on the diner, and saw arson as a way out of his financial predicament, the FDNY spokesman said.

Here's the Bronx News Network's coverage of the fire and its aftermath (scroll down for additional posts). It was the third major fire in the area since April.

Fire Aftermath Update

The Daily News reported yesterday that among the businesses "destroyed" in Monday's fire on East 204th Street in Norwood, was McKeon Funeral Home. That is totally incorrect as we reported here on Monday. In fact, owner Bill Curran just told us that he has a funeral scheduled today. McKeon suffered a little bit of water and smoke damage, but the newly renovated funeral home survived largely intact. McKeon Funeral Home is located at 3129 Perry Ave. and the phone number is 718-655-6464.

We're a little short-staffed on this almost-holiday work day. Can anyone tell us whether Bank of American on the corner of East 204th Street and Bainbridge Avenue is open for business? The Daily News said that business was destroyed as well, and while we don't think that's the case -- the building appeared completely intact the day of the fire -- we wanted to make sure of  the bank's current status before we posted anything about it. 

Also, we wanted to provide a better phone number for residents wanting to order groceries by telephone from Foodtown --718-293-3032.  The other 718 number in our previous report is for Pricebusters, which will, in the next few weeks, provide some groceries. Residents can also order groceries for delivery on-line at www.foodtown.com. If you use either service, please let us know about your experience so we can share it with our readers and your neighbors.


We'll have a News Roundup and a little more news on the blog as the day progresses.

Bronx News Roundup, Dec. 23

Yesterday night, police found a 20 month-old baby who was abducted by her troubled 13 year-old aunt earlier in the afternoon. The baby is uninjured and now safe at home with her family.

The Daily News recently interviewed Vada Vasquez, who was shot in the head by a stray bullet in Morrisana on November 16, in her Soundview home.Vasquez has almost made a full recovery from the shooting.

Police are investigating the events of Monday evening's two shootings in the Bronx. Four people were shot in Mount Eden and one person was shot in Claremont Village.

Jose Velazquez, the founder of a construction company in the Bronx said of the Kingsbridge Armory, "Killing the project will deny my small business the opportunity to create jobs in the Bronx" in an opinion piece published in the Daily News.

Today, the Daily News covered the 204th Street fire and compared it to a slew of other commercial fires in the Bronx this past year.

In other fire news, an arsonist is still on the loose at the Marble Hill Houses, where there have been nine reported fires from May to September of this year.

If you are looking for a unique holiday gift, look no further than the Church of the Holy Family in the Bronx, where Father O'Connor sells high-fashion, organic clothes, which were featured in Vogue. Profits from the clothes go to helping his church and Indians in Guatemala who make the fabric.

Breaking News: Foodtown to Reopen Bigger; Groceries to be Offered in Meantime at Pricebusters and On-Line

I just spoke to Dan Katz, whose family owns the newly renovated Foodtown on E. 204th St. that was just destroyed by yesterday's fire. The Katz's announced that they will rebuild an even larger store on the same site in 2010 and also provide groceries at Pricebusters, another store they own on E. 204th St. between Hull and Decatur avenues. They also said that shoppers could order on-line at www.foodtown.com or call a hotline to have their food delivered right to their door. They can also choose to pick up their groceries at Pricebusters.  The delivery cost will be $3 or free with a $50 purchase.

"Everyone should know that we are committed to serving the residents and we will rebuild and even bigger and better store that what was there," said Noah Katz, Dan's brother, in a press release. "We have a long term lease on the site and we have already hired architects and engineers to begin the process of building a brand new store."

Dan Katz told me that  they have an agreement with the landlord to lease the two other properties claimed by the fire -- the American Diner and the dental office -- in order to expand their business. (We spoke to the owner of Amiercan Diner earlier. Still in shock, he said he had no idea at this time what his plans are.) Katz said they were going to try to assist the dental office in relocating.

Pricebusters "will carry more grocery variety beginning in the next several weeks."  (The Pricebusters site had been a grocery store many years ago.)

Those with questions about ordering groceries on the Internet should call 914-667-3346 or 718-652-4753.

In the meantime, shoppers can immediately order food on-line at www.foodtown.com, and have them delivered or picked up at Pricebusters.

The Katz family, which owns 11 other Foodtown stores has operated the store on East 204th Street, first called MetFood, since Dan's grandfather, Paul, opened it in 1956. Their father, Sydney, joined Paul in 1962. Noah and Dan joned the company in the 1980s.

The workers have been transferred to the other Foodtown stores. "Without our staf, we would not be here in the first place," Noah Katz said.

More on 204th St. Fire Aftermath

I visited some of the merchants I know on East 204th St. this afternoon, and I'll give you a bit of a rundown on what I learned in a moment, but first I wanted to share with you what I've been mulling all day: There have now been 3 fires in the past 7 months on Bainbrdige/E. 204th St. We called the Fire Department today and not only did they tell us that the fire on Oct. 31, which obliterated 14 bussinesses is still under investigation, but that the smaller one in April affecting some of the same businesses is still under investigation as well. Maybe I'm missing something -- and I'm hardly an expert on this -- but how can that be? How can the cause a fire in April, the remains of which have long been obliterated by the Bainbridge Bakery's renovation and its encore destruction, still be undetermined? If it's not possible to determine the cause, then tell us that. Don't keep a frightened community waiting over 7 months.

A week or two after the Oct. 31 fire, I was chatting with a fire marshal near the site. I asked him what kind of things he looks for when he investigates. He laughed heartily. "You want ME to tell YOU what I look for?" he said. "That would be like giving you the keys to the kingdom." Now, what he meant by this is that if he told me and my readers what he looks for that would be kind of like publishing a "how to" for arsonists on how to cover their tracks. Well, he can can keep his keys to the kingdom, but the Fire Department can't keep this shaken community waiting much longer for a determination on either fire. This should be THE question at the upcoming precinct council and community board meetings, as well how both agencies are going to protect the remaining businesses.

We're going to look at this some more, and speak with higher-ups in the Fire Department ... In the meantime, here's what else I learned today ...

Another Fire in Norwood in 51 days.

By now most of you have read the News and seen the destruction caused by the early morning fire on 204 street in the Norwood section of the Bronx.
The phone rang at 4:45 am and I thought "It cannot be another fire". The last time I had received an early morning call it was October 31 and we lost more than 10 businesses on Bainbridge ave. Here are some of the photographs I made while I watched my family's favorite store burn (Foodtown). "Where are we going to buy ice cream" was my 5 year old daughters reaction. The last quarter of 2009 has not been good for Our community. We are a close knit community here in Norwood. Thanks to my friend's call I was one of the first photographers to get to the location. You can see the empty snow covered lot created by the October 31st fire in the last photograph of the slide show

204th Street Fire Update

This morning, around 11 a.m. at the site of the 204th Street fire, a cluster of firefighters were still drowning the smoking buildings with pounds upon pounds of water. The fire started around 4:30 in the morning, and although all of the flames were put out by sunrise, the water will not stop flowing for the rest of the day.

"Usually a fire like this [has] a wash for 24 hours," said one firefighter at the scene of the fire. This particular firefighter arrived at the scene of the fire from Manhattan around 10:45 and said firefighters from across the city were constantly "changing shifts" throughout the morning.

Multiple NYPD officers were also present at the scene of the fire for "crowd control and public safety," according to one officer.

One of the multiple businesses affected by the fire was Foodtown, a local chain supermarket. A supervisor from Foodtown said, "I'm sure we'll relocate [the employees] to other stores for now." In regards to the future of the store, the supervisor was positive that the Foodtown management would rebuild the store at the site of the fire since it was their first store.

Local residents crowded on the streets to watch the firefighters douse the 204th Street stores with water. "I was completely surprised [by the fire]," said Edward Bryant, a Norwood resident who lives on Decatur Avenue. "Where are we supposed to shop? The closest supermarket is a bus ride away in Bedford Park."

Fire in Norwood on 204th Street

Residents of Norwood awoke this morning to sounds, smells and sights of another devastating fire to the local business district and greater community. The FDNY received calls for the fire around 4:30am and by 6:30am over 160 firefighters had responded to subdue the blaze. The fire raged through the building that houses Foodtown and the American Diner, in the heart of the commercial strip on 204th Street. These photos were taken from the hallway of an apartment building on Rochambeau Avenue, images eerily similar to the fire on Halloween that destroyed a building and 12 businesses on Bainbridge Avenue. This fire now leaves two gaping wholes in what was an otherwise vibrant neighborhood commercial corridor.