Transcript: Mayor Adams Visits Scene of Bronx Fire and Briefs Media

January 10, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning. I'm going to turn this over to our fire commissioner to report on the conditions in the fire. I'm joined here by both the fire commissioner, OEM commissioner, and also the electeds in this area. Borough President Vanessa Gibson, [State] Senator Bailey, Assemblymember Zaccaro, and Councilman Kevin Riley all immediately responding to this fire and reaching out to our office to coordinate with our agencies early this morning.

This fire started about a little after 1 this morning. As you can see, it's still smoldering. Some of the areas were still dealing with the fire. But thank God, no life-threatening injuries. We have about seven injuries, five firefighters and two civilians. But this was a massive fire and the wind played a major role in the conditions that we are facing. But at this time, I want to turn it over to the fire commissioner to give you an update, and then we'll hear from the other teams that are here trying to get this fire fully under control. Commissioner?

Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Good morning, everyone. I'm Robert Tucker, the fire commissioner. It's been a very long and cold morning here in the Bronx. FDNY has been on the scene, as the mayor said, since about 1:45 this morning.

We have a five-alarm fire, about 250 firefighters, EMTs and paramedics on the scene. Thank God, no serious injuries to report. That's a miracle. This was a very, very large fire, wind-driven, as the mayor said. Very difficult fire for our firefighters to fight under conditions that caused us to have to have lots of relief. I'm going to let Chief John Esposito, the chief of the department, give you a technical explanation of what happened here. Chief?

John Esposito, Chief of Department, Fire Department: Thank you, commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good morning. We arrived here a little after 1:45 this morning. We found fire in the ceiling above the top floor, that space between the ceiling and the underside of the roof. That's called the cockloft. It's an open area for the entire length and width of the building.

The building's about 200 feet wide, about 100 feet deep, and we had fire throughout that cockloft. Heavy fire destroyed all the apartments on the top floor, burnt through the roof. Initially, we had fire companies inside conducting searches, removing people and attempting to fight the fire. The fire had too much headway. It was extremely dangerous for our firefighters.

We removed them from the building, and you can see behind us we're using tower ladders to extinguish the rest of the building, and we're continuing with that operation. We had no water problems. The cold, although it is problematic, did not cause any problems aside from making it very uncomfortable. The wind did play a part in spreading the fire through the cockloft. I'm happy to report that we just have some minor injuries.

Commissioner Zach Iscol, New York City Office of Emergency Management: Thank you. Good morning, everybody. I'm Zach Iscol. I'm the commissioner for New York City Emergency Management. The mayor is always talking to us about making sure that we as a city operate as one team.

That's exactly what we saw this morning with this response from the remarkable work of our firefighters, the MTA immediately deploying warming buses to keep residents warm. Our schools, our partners over at New York City Schools opened up P.S. 76, the Bennington School, just down the street as a reception center to keep people warm.

We have the Red Cross there that is currently registering families and residents. We have over 66 families registered, about 180 people, so really an incredible effort by all the agencies here this morning. If you need help or if you need services, we encourage you to reach out to the Red Cross. Again, services are being provided at P.S. 76, the Bennington School down the street, and I'll turn it over to Doreen Howe, the CEO of the Red Cross here in New York. Doreen.

Doreen Thomann-Howe, CEO, American Red Cross of Greater New York: Good morning. My name is Doreen Howe. I'm the CEO for the American Red Cross of Greater New York. As the commissioner said, together we've opened the reception center where we're keeping the families warm and out of the cold.

We've served them breakfast and we are registering them now, and as the commissioner said, 66 families registered now, but we expect that number to go up. We'll provide emergency assistance, including lodging, connection to the resources that the families need as they plan their next steps in recovering from this disaster. I want to thank our volunteers and staff for being here through the night working with the families to keep them safe.

Mayor Adams: We're now going to turn it over to Borough President Vanessa Gibson, representing the electeds in this area.

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson: Good morning, everyone. I am Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson and I first and foremost want to thank all of our incredible first responders. 200 plus members of the FDNY firefighters came early this morning here in the Allerton community, responding to this five-alarm fire, and most importantly, our number one priority is to keep residents and families safe, to make sure that we evacuated this building as quickly as possible and we protect lives.

We are so grateful that there are no fatalities in this particular fire, but we know that families are right now displaced and worried about where they will lay their heads at tonight, and I'm so grateful that here we have our Mayor Eric Adams, our commissioner of the FDNY. Thank you, Commissioner Robert Tucker, Commissioner Zach Iscol from New York City Emergency Management, and all of our volunteers at the American Red Cross. We stand here ready, willing, and able to work with our first responders and emergency crew. Thank you to the EMTs and all of our paramedics. We know that there were some that faced minor injuries and are likely in a local hospital right now, so we ask New Yorkers and Bronxites to please pray for your neighbors here in Allerton.

We know that these fires are happening far too often across our city, and we will do our very best to make sure that we protect New Yorkers during their time of need. Over the next several hours throughout the day, as we continue to register clients and identify their particular needs, we're thankful that we have an open site at P.S. 76, so we want to thank New York City Public Schools and our chancellor for making that available and provide more updates throughout the morning, and I am thankful that I'm here with all of my colleagues in government, our State Senator Jamaal T. Bailey, our Assemblymember John Zaccaro Jr., and our local Councilmember Kevin Riley.

All the elected officials are united with our city officials to make sure we do everything possible to support our residents and families here on Wallace Avenue, because they're our neighbors, they're our family members, and they are in need of services, and so we thank you for sharing this information to make sure that we get accurate information out, as well as resources that will be available for our residents and families. Thank you again, mayor. Thank you, FDNY. Thank you, NYCEM. Thank you, American Red Cross, and everyone for your incredible efforts earlier this morning. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: We'll be open for a few questions.

Question: [Inaudible] potentially the cause of this fire?

Commissioner Tucker: So, the fire is under investigation. Our fire marshals are here. They've been here all night and all morning, and we will get back to you on the cause of the fire. As for the heat, we haven't heard that, and we'll find out about that and get back to you as well.

Question: Can you just expand on that a little bit more because they were saying that they were using their stoves and their ovens to keep warm. They're using space heaters, and this has been a chronic problem with this landlord for years, and they've been forwarding it to 3-1-1,

[inaudible].

Commissioner Tucker: You know, from the FDNY's perspective, we would ask people not to do that. It's cold weather. Obviously, that's a very dangerous situation. It can cause fires to happen, and we hope that we, you know, are sending the message that fire safety in the cold weather is super important, and to report any situations like that to 3-1-1 immediately.

Mayor Adams: We have not heard that preliminarily, but we are going to have DOB and other city agencies look into if there's a chronic condition. We're going to look at if there are 3-1-1 calls that were made with follow-up was conducted, and we're going to find out what the cause of this fire is, but we would look into if those were some of the concerns.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Well, first we need to find out if that's the condition here specifically, but in general, it's unacceptable. We have a heat hotline, and we really want to encourage New Yorkers, if landlords are not fulfilling their responsibility and obligations to give proper heat, they should call in and report that, and we do conduct those investigations.

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