Newsday (New York)
Copyright 2007 Newsday, Inc.
NEW YORK — Two days later, one of the city’s worst residential fires continued Friday to haunt firefighters who had swarmed into the burning four-story building on Woodycrest Avenue in the Bronx.
“A lot of them are still very emotionally upset because of this incident,” Chief of Department Salvatore Cassano said at a news conference Friday at the Ogden Avenue stationhouse of Engine Company 68 and Ladder Company 49, just five blocks from the fire scene, which responded to the 911 call just after 11 p.m. Wednesday.
When fire and emergency crews arrived, flames were shooting out of the first- and second-floor windows of 1022 Woodycrest Ave. Firefighters scaled a 6-foot fence to get to the building, with some then climbing ladders to the roof, according to fire officials and witnesses.
Cassano described the challenge. It’s “the most difficult type of fire that a firefighter or fire officer can face,” he said. “Very late at night, an advanced fire upon arrival. People screaming that their children are trapped.”
He said firefighters were on “an emotional roller coaster,” with adrenaline pumping full blast.
One firefighter, from inside the house, handed children through a ground-floor window to his colleagues outside, who in turn rushed them to waiting ambulances.
“When you pull somebody out, you’re thinking of your own children,” Cassano said. “You lose somebody, you’re thinking that could have been a friend, a relative.”
After the fire was out two hours later, counselors spoke to firefighters who had been on the scene. Officials had said 150 firefighters responded to the blaze.
Despite the loss of life, the firefighters “know somewhere in the city, we’re going to rescue somebody else; we’re going to save another life,” Cassano said. “That’s what keeps us coming back to work.”