Long Time Resident Killed in Decatur Blaze

Fire Marshal's continue to investigate the source
of the Decatur Avenue fire that
 killed a long time resident. (Photo by David Greene)

By David Greene

A Saturday afternoon fire on the top floor of a five-story Decatur Avenue building in Norwood claimed the life of a 37-year-old resident Chris Podesta who died of smoke inhalation, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Press officers for the fire and police departments could not confirm the death by press time, but neighbors confirmed that it was Podesta who had died in the fire.

One resident of the block, who declined to give his name for this article, stood in shock after firefighters removed his friend Podesta from the building.

"They brought him out and he was all full of smoke and they were performing CPR on him,” the resident said.

Bronx News Roundup, July 13

Weather: The painfully oppressive heat that's plagued us for the last few days drops off a bit today, with temperatures cooling to the mid-80s. Skies will remain partly cloudy.

Story of the Day: Diaz Sr. Just Won't Quit
State Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr., continues his tirades against the legalization of same-sex marriage, despite the fact that the bill was signed into law two weeks ago. The Rev. is planning yet another protest, this time in front of Gov. Andrew's Cuomo's midtown office, to "protest the redefinition of marriage and demand that all New Yorkers have the right to vote on this very serious social issue." The announcement of the rally came via a letter to Archbishop Timothy Dolan, inviting him to the event. Diaz held an anti-gay marriage rally back in May, and was the only Democratic state legislator to vote against the measure in the Senate.

Quick Hits:
After allegedly stabbing his girlfriend to death, a man in Edenwald barricaded himself in his Needham Avenue apartment yesterday in a three hour standoff with police.

A 26-year-old Bronx man was arrested after DNA linked him to three act of sexual abuse against women on the subway over the last decade.

Three Bronx Firehouses Could Get Axed By City Budget

 Editor's Note: A version of this article first appeared in the June edition of the Tremont Tribune, out now.

Budget cuts have 20 of the city’s firehouses on the chopping block—including local Engine 46 in Bathgate, on the Cross Bronx Expressway and Third Avenue.

In addition to Engine 46, two other companies in the Bronx face a possible closure: Ladder 53 on City Island and Engine 60 in the South Bronx.

Firefighters, residents and elected officials rallied at City Hall on June 3 to protest the potential closures, laid out in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s budget 2012, which estimates the move would save the cash-strapped city approximately $55 million.

Deadly Belmont Fire Points to Illegal Housing Dangers; City Launches Crackdown

Editor's Note: A version of this article first appeared in the May edition of the Tremont Tribune.

A fire at 2321 Prospect Ave. killed
three people in April (Photo by David Greene)

Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council announced yesterday that the city will be taking a new, more aggressive approach in identifying and inspecting apartment buildings suspected of being divided illegally.

At the end of April, a fire tore through an apartment building in Belmont and killed three family members who had been living there--Christina Garcia, 43, Juan Lopez, 36, and their 12-year-old son Christian Garcia.

The early morning blaze broke out on the top floor of a multi-family building at 2321 Prospect Ave., a space that had been subdivided into several rooms using partitions, according to FDNY spokesman Frank Dwyer.

The tragedy has shined a spotlight on the proliferation of dangerous housing conditions in the Bronx, and across the city. Experts and elected officials say practices like illegal divisions, erected by both tenants and landlords alike, are frighteningly common and growing in number.

Sally Dunford, of the West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center, called the problem “endemic.”

She described some of what she’s seen in the community in recent years: already small apartments portioned off into even smaller ones, blocking access to the fire escape or stationed dangerously close to the building’s heating source; five people living in a basement with no bathroom or kitchen; an elderly couple living in a closet; tenants moving back into a property immediately after the city ordered them to vacate.

“It’s just scary,” Dunford said.

Bronx News Roundup, May 26

Weather: Another warm one. Partly cloudy for most of the day, with temperatures in the high 70s.

Story of the Day: Budget Cuts Threaten Firehouses (Again)
Mayor Bloomberg's proposed city budget could shutter 20 FDNY firehouses across the city, three of which are in the Bronx: Engine 60 in Mott Haven, Engine 46 in Bathgate and Ladder 53 on City Island. The move has spurred neighborhood protest rallies and one angry column from Daily News Bronx bureau chief Patrice O'Shaughnessy, who says the mayor should focus on fixing his budget instead of his "Orwellian" city park smoking ban (which went into effect yesterday).

It's not the first time the city has threatened to shut firehouses: much like the budget dance over senior center closures, Bloomberg has threatened the FDNY before only to restore funding at the last minute. Eddie Brown of the Uniformed Firefighters Association called it a "budget game the mayor plays with the Council, using the people as pawns."

Quick Hits:

A first-class hotel and banquet hall could be coming to the Hutch Metro Center in Pelham Bay, according to director Joseph Kelleher, per Bob Kappstatter's column. bringing a major hotel to the borough has long been a dream of Bronx political leaders, including Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.

Two Bronx high schools--John F. Kennedy and Herbert Lehman--are among five chosen by the city to get solar panels installed on their roofs. 

The Bronx River Art Center is showing off its students' work with a free reception and opening exhibit tomorrow afternoon,  at 4 p.m. at the BronxArtSpace, 305 E. 140th St.

Livery cab drivers in the outer boroughs are worried about competing with yellow cabs, as the city looks to increase their number outside Manhattan.

A fire broke out on the third floor of a Claremont nursing home yesterday, injuring two people.

In a poll, researchers at Baruch College found more people in the Bronx fear becoming the victim of a hate crime than in the rest of the city. The survey also found that Hispanic New Yorkers are the most fearful of being attacked.

A Bronx man was sentenced to seven years in jail for sexually abusing one of his patients at a nursing home in Morningside Heights, where he worked as a nurse's aide.

Editor's Note: BxNN will keep posting this clock in our daily news roundups--tallying the days until the NYPD releases neighborhood sector crime stats, which we requested from them via a Freedom of Information Law request last year. For some background, see our Norwood News' editorial here.

Fire Devastates Rebounding Community

A row of businesses on Jerome Avenue were destroyed by a fire last Friday. (Photo by David Greene)
 

By DAVID GREENE

The neighborhood of Burnside, which has enjoyed a sort of renaissance and building boom in recent years, suffered a major setback last week as a row of stores burned down along the bustling shopping corridor of Jerome Avenue.

According to officials from the FDNY, the fire broke out inside a laundromat at 2081 Jerome Avenue at 9:53 a.m., on Friday, April 29

The blaze continued to rage, prompting officials to declare four-alarms and requiring 168 firefighters, who remained on the scene long after the blaze was brought under control at 2:12 p.m.

The fire destroyed six businesses: the Bronx Eagle Cafe restaurant, a barber shop, a children's store, a beauty salon, a locksmith and the laundromat where it began. A nearby nail salon and the MARC Academy Pre-K and After School Program suffered smoke and water damage.

14 Pit Bulls Saved From Concourse Blaze

By DAVID GREENE

A worker with Animal Care and Control of New York removes one of 14 pit bulls from a Grand Concourse apartment yesterday. (Photos by David Greene)

Firefighters battling a blaze on the Grand Concourse in Fordham Heights rescued 14 pit bulls that had apparently been living in the sixth-floor apartment. 

Authorities say the fire broke out on the top floor of 2186 Grand Concourse, at just before 3 p.m. on Monday, March 7. Witnesses say some of the dogs were overcome by the smoke and firemen gave several of the animals oxygen. 

Animal Care and Control of New York City reported removing a total of 14 dogs: nine adults, 1 pup and four newborns. An official stated that just one dog was injured in an apparent accident that occurred as the animal was being transported out of the building. That dog suffered a small gash on his noise, but the injury was not serious. 

Building super Brian Rivic was boarding up the heavily damaged apartment. He said the dogs' owner was apparently at work when the fire happened. 

"He has a lot of dogs but he takes care of them," Rivic said of the still-unidentified owner, adding, "He makes a few trips, he walks them in the morning and in the afternoon."

Neighbor Umberto Portuondo, who lives downstairs, said he was aware of the dogs.

Bronx News Roundup, June 23

The Obama image on a toolbox that landed a Tremont firehouse in hot water earlier this week has been removed, FDNY officials have said.

A farm in upstate Schoharie County is a new source of fresh produce for the South Bronx.

Two Bronx sites were granted landmark status yesterday. The Haffen Building, on Third Avenue in Melrose, and the Noonan Plaza, on West 168th Street in Highbridge, are now both preserved as city landmarks--meaning they can't be altered without the approval of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Speaking of landmarks: the city is considering making the Grand Concourse, between 153rd Street to 167th Streets, into a historic district. 

Mayor Bloomberg's tactic of breaking up large, failing schools into smaller ones seems to be working, according to one study. This AP article sites John F. Kennedy High School, which was broken into six smaller schools, as one success story.

A number of medical sites, including Montefiore, are giving free prostate cancer screening tests this week as part of an annual campaign sponsored by the Daily News. A full list of sites offering the tests can be found here.

Former Yankee player Johnny Damon says he misses the team's old stadium. 

State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., who represents many neighborhoods in the South Bronx, says fellow Senator Kevin Parker, of Brooklyn, threatened him on the Senate floor yesterday after Diaz voted against a bill.

Police are searching for a teenage mother and her infant son, who were last seen Monday on Boston Road.

Defense lawyer Murray Richman compared his client--City Councilman Larry Seabrook--to the Kennedy brothers in court yesterday, according to the New York Post. Seabrook is accused of funneling city money to groups that employed his relatives, which Richman compared to the nepotism of the Kennedys, who all worked in government.

On Tuesday afternoon, a 38-year-old man was killed in a propane explosion while he attempted to retrieve a broken barbeque grill from a shed in the Bronx on 2401 White Plains Road.

David Johnson, the former aide to Governor Paterson accused of assaulting a former girlfriend at her Bronx apartment, is refusing to answer questions from investigators by invoking his fifth amendment right.

Fire at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church

A two-alarm fire broke out this morning at the St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church on the corner of W. Fordham Rd. and Andrews Ave. The fire started sometime between 11:30 and 11:40am. The Fire Department responded quickly, and fire fighters arrived at the church around 11:45.
A total of 60 fire fighters were on hand.

Fire Department officials call the fire, which started in the vestibule of the church, "very suspicious," adding that someone may have set the fire on purpose or by accident. The fire never got to the main sanctuary, and is, as of now, under control. No word yet as to the extent of damages inside the church.

A few members of the congregation were praying inside St. Nicholas of Tolentine when the fire broke out, but were quickly rushed outside via side exit. No one was hurt. The blaze sent thick, black smoke billowing out the front entrance of the church.

Church members are thankful the fire was not worse, and are hopeful to hold mass at St. Nicholas of Tolentine on Sunday.