One person died when a fire erupted Friday on an upper floor of a luxury high-rise apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The blaze erupted around 9:05 p.m. on the 25th floor of Adam tower, rental building at 351 E. 84th St. in Yorkville. “It was a small flame at first, and then firefighters were in there trying to control it,” doorman at a building across First Ave. who was on a meal break. When the firefighters broke open a window, “a ball of fire” blew out. It took firefighters 44 minutes to bring the blaze under control.
Authorities did not immediately release the name of the person killed in the fire. One person in the building suffered a serious but non-life threatening injury. Another person suffered a minor injury. Two firefighters also suffered minor injuries. The fire was small enough that some building residents weren’t immediately aware of what was going on.
“There were no alarms, nothing,” one of the residents lives on the building’s seventh floor and didn’t want to be named. “It’s worrisome in a building like this. You don’t know what’s going on 20 flights up. I didn’t hear a thing.” Seventy eight firefighters from 20 firefighting units responded to the blaze. The fire’s cause remained under investigation. The 32-story building is outfitted with a pool and includes a garage in its basement, city records show.
A 34-year-old Bronx deli worker was shot dead by a lone gunman Friday night. The victim, a man, was behind the counter of Gourmet Deli at 217 Brook Ave. in Mott Haven when another man walked in about 6:30 p.m. and fired several shots at him, the deli worker was struck several times in the chest. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital and pronounced dead, according to police
The suspect, wearing a dark coat, fled on foot after the shooting. It’s unclear why the victim was targeted; robbery does not appear to be a motive. The victim’s name was being withheld pending family notification. Neighbors were upset by the fatal shooting at least the second violent incident in the area in two days.
Every other day something’s happening here, said Edith Robles, 42, who lives across the street from the deli. “It’s scary.”
Just one block away on Wednesday, a 19-year-old woman was randomly slashed in the head by a man on the subway. The slashing occurred as the train was inside the Brook Avenue subway stop, and the suspect fled the station after the attack. Outside of Gourmet Deli the scene of Friday night’s shooting, is an NYPD-issued poster with a picture of the suspect wanted in Wednesday’s attack.
Robles said the deli where the worker was shot is a fixture in the neighborhood. “Everybody in the neighborhood knows the employees. They’ve all been good to everybody in the neighborhood”. “Everybody wants justice.”
