A fire at an Upper East Side building earlier this month claimed one life and caused six injuries. Photo c/o Citizen
Last week, FDNY officials took to social media to reveal what ignited the fire that left one person dead and several others injured earlier this month on the Upper East Side.
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“Fire Marshals have determined the cause of a fatal 3-alarm fire that occurred on December 2 at 526 E 82 Street in Manhattan is electrical/wiring,” the FDNY wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.
The fire broke out on 526 East 82nd Street (between East End Avenue and York Avenue) in the evening on Monday, December 2, engulfing the fifth and sixth floors of the building around 7:15 p.m. It quickly spread to neighboring apartment buildings before being upgraded to a three-alarm fire.
Photo c/o Citizen
The blaze drew more than 130 firefighters and EMS officials to the scene, according to an email by the FDNY. Approximately eight to ten of the units at 526 East 82nd Street were impacted by the fire. Twenty-three adults were displaced from fifteen apartments as a result.
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Besides the person that was killed in the blaze, seven others—one civilian and six firefighters—were injured, according to the FDNY.
“We had a heavy, heavy body of fire,” Assistant Fire Chief Thomas Currao said at a press briefing on the night of the fire. “We had very, very quick work by members of the FDNY.”
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Kate Connors, a 23-year-old retail worker who lives on the second floor of the apartment building, told the New York Post that she was “scared” and “confused,” and rushed out of the building as soon as the fire broke out.
“We heard yelling like, ‘Get out, get out!’ so we opened our door and smelt the smoke and came outside and the flames were coming through the window…we could smell it when we came out,” Connors, who has lived in the apartment since August, told The Post on Tuesday. “We just started sprinting out. We grabbed our phone. We just ran out.”
According to the National Fire Protection Association, “In 2023, local fire departments responded to an estimated 1.39 million fires in the United States. These fires caused an estimated 3,670 civilian fire deaths and 13,350 reported civilian fire injuries. The property damage caused by these fires was estimated at $23 billion.”
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Were some of the 15 apartments in the “neighboring apartment buildings”? Or was it not consequential there? Tough to be watchful of bad wiring in a neighboring building.
The article’s titled “Here’s What Caused the Recent Fatal Fire on the Upper East Side” – but it DOESN’T STATE A CAUSE!. Site’s usually very good – and can’t complain about the price. But c’mon…!