UES Building Fire Leads to One Death, Multiple Injuries

A three-alarm fire blazed through a residential building on the Upper East Side Monday evening, leading to multiple injuries and one death.

The fire, at 526 East 82nd Street (between York Avenue and East End Avenue), was first called in at 7:17 p.m., according to an email from the FDNY.

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“We had a heavy, heavy body of fire,” Assistant Fire Chief Thomas Currao said at a press briefing. “We had very, very quick work by members of the FDNY.”

According to the FDNY’s press office, it was a “heavy fire on the fifth floor extending to the sixth.” As of Monday evening, the FDNY told East Side Feed in an email that at least two firefighters sustained minor injuries.

Multiple videos of the incident were shared on Citizen.

As for the victim, Currao said the fifth floor hallway was “overcome with smoke…The victim was found in a hallway area and identified right away.”

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Flames were seen engulfing major portions of the top two floors of the building; the FDNY said approximately 138 fire and Emergency Medical Service personnel were on the scene dealing with the incident.

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Second floor resident Matthew Myers, 31, told the New York Daily News that he ran out of the building without a shirt to escape the blaze.

“I smelled smoke, and people were banging on the door, screaming, ‘Fire, fire, fire!’ ” he told the outlet. “I ran outside and it was a blaze on the fifth floor. It blew out the windows. I was worried for the rest of the building.”

”You go through all the emotions,” Myers continued. “The blaze was coming out of the windows. It hadn’t quite reached the roof yet. I’m worried about tonight, tomorrow, and the next day.”

Throughout Monday evening, the sirens of firetrucks and police vehicles could be heard reverberating throughout the neighborhood past 9 p.m.

As of Tuesday morning, the FDNY told East Side feed that the fire “remains under investigation.”

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