There was a fire this morning at 540 Main Street in Roosevelt Landings.
I asked the FDNY this morning:
Do you have any information on fire today on Roosevelt Island at 540 Main Street?
Were there any injuries, what was the extent of the damage and do you know what was the cause.
A FDNY spokesperson replied soon thereafter:
540 Main Street between West Road and Roosevelt Island Bridge Ramp
Call received @ 10:15 hours
Reported Fire on the 19th floor
46 units / 141 Fire and EMS personnel
Second Alarm @ 10:47 hours
Six total patients (Three civilians with minor injuries refused medical attention and three firefighters with minor injuries transported to area hospitals)
Fire Marshals notified
Heavy Clutter condition operations ongoing
The 540 Breezeway was the Command Center for FDNY firefighters.
I spoke with FDNY Deputy Assistant Fire Chief Timothy Keenan at the Command Center.
According to Chief Keenan:
This morning, we responded to a fire at 540 Main Street on Roosevelt Island. The fire was in a 20 story high-rise fireproof residential building. The fire was located on the 19th floor. The apartment was a duplex apartment.
It was a heavy fire condition on arrival and there was heavy, heavy clutter in the apartment which hampered our efforts of getting in and putting the fire out. It was so much clutter and so much fire it required us to do some alternate strategies.
In this particular case we ended up breaching a wall from an adjoining apartment to get water into the fire to knock it down enough so that we could push in through the clutter in the original apartment.
Right now we have a couple of minor injuries. Thank god nothing serious. And we were very lucky that this fire was at the top of the building and not on the lower floor because it took us a while to get water on the fire.
When asked about the cause of the fire, the Chief added:
That’s all going to be under investigation. We don’t know right now what the cause was but that’s going to be investigated by the fire marshall.
Here are some scenes from today’s Roosevelt Island fire which caused several hours of traffic back up on Main Street as well.
East River Keeper Instagram page has more info on the Roosevelt Landings fire.
Last November, there was an apartment fire in Roosevelt Landings at 560 Main Street which killed the resident. The cause of that fire was described as “electrical wiring“.
I asked Roosevelt Landings building management:
Does building management have any comment on the cause of the fire and extent of the damage.
I interviewed the FDNY Chief on scene who told me the apartment was very difficult to enter because of the clutter inside.
Please let me know if there will be any comment from building management.
According to a spokesperson from C+C Management:
Today’s fire and related fire suppression efforts at Roosevelt Landings unfortunately impacted several units but thankfully, no one was injured. Our on-site team and Red Cross are meeting with affected residents to arrange alternative accommodations and ensure they receive the necessary support. We will continue to keep residents informed as recovery efforts continue.”
Here’s more on today’s fire.
Alexandre Tolipan shares photos from the fire scene today.
