Following the four-alarm fire that broke out at 3435 DeKalb Avenue in Norwood on Thursday, Aug. 20, Norwood News spoke to some residents at the scene about what they witnessed and how they escaped from the building.

 

As reported, four people incurred minor injuries following the fire. An FDNY spokesperson said the department received a call at 5.49 a.m. on Thursday for a report of a fire on the top floor. Read our initial story on the fire here.

 

Jenny, who looked emotionally distraught as she waited with her two dogs, her son, Isaiah, and other family members and neighbors outside the affected building on Thursday, told Norwood News, “My son ran into my room and started saying that it was a fire around 5.50 in the morning, and about 6 in the morning, I came out. I saw the firemen already going upstairs to turn the fire off. I just grabbed my dogs and grabbed my family and some important documents, and we ran out of the house, and everybody got out.”

Jenny continued, “Everybody got out. My son went right back in to go and get his school stuff and he, my next door neighbor, ended up falling, and he [Isaiah] had to help them down the stairs. My elderly next door neighbor fell down coming out of the apartment, and my son had to literally pick him up and bring him down the stairs.” Asked how old the elderly neighbor was, Jenny said, “80s.” She added, “He [Isaiah] had to help two people downstairs and we got everybody out safe, and I hope nobody got hurt or there’s no casualties.” She said it took quite a while for Isaiah to help his neighbors out.

 

Asked how old Isaiah was, Jenny, who lives on the 4th floor of the building, said, “22.” We asked Jenny if she had heard a fire alarm. “No,” she said. “Actually, I’m supposed to have a smoke detector in front of my door and there’s not one there. So, there was no alarm going off in the building.” Asked how she woke up, Jenny said her son smelled the smoke.

 

Asked if she encountered flames as she was exiting, Jenny said, “No. I ran out. They were above me. I wasn’t going… I’m not a firefighter. I ran out and I’m asthmatic so I need to get out. But other than that, we got out safe, and that’s all that matters right now. We’ll deal with the destruction after. So, that’s what we’re waiting for. Hopefully, the Red Cross will come and help us because the Red Cross didn’t help the last fire on 209th [Street, also in Norwood.”

Norwood News mentioned that the residents at the recent East 209th Street building fire [on Aug. 5] had been placed in emergency hotel accommodation temporarily via the Red Cross but that indeed, we interviewed some of the affected residents again a few days after the fire, and indeed, they said how they were looking for help with long-term accommodation for when they would have to leave their hotel.

 

Norwood News informed Jenny and others where they could obtain the number for the Red Cross in case they missed them onsite for whatever reason. “We’re waiting to see what happens,” Jenny said. “Because I know my apartment is very much damaged.”

 

Referring to her dog, which was seen panting heavily, Jenny added that she was able to get some water for him at North Central Bronx Hospital, “He’s calm now,” she said. “He was worse earlier.”  We asked if Isaiah wanted to say anything and Jenny said he was shy to do so.

 

Residents of the other two buildings in the three-building complex were also evacuated even though it seems the fire did not spread to those buildings/towers. One woman who lives on the third floor of the center building said the firefighters advised them to evacuate even though there was no smoke in their building.

 

Speaking in Spanish, another female resident seen holding a small infant who was pointing at the burning building, said, “Well I heard all the noise from the firefighters. I opened the window and saw that the fire was in the third building. It’s painful that the third building burned.” Referring to her own building, she said, “I live in this one, thanks be to God.”

 

The woman continued, “I got a shock and I went out with my nephews.” Asked if she had heard an alarm, she paused and then said, “no.” She turned to a friend / family member and asked if she had heard an alarm and the friend / family member said she had not.

Norwood News also spoke to another young man who was seated on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street from where the fire was along with his parents. As we approached him, he was resting his head in his hands.

 

We asked if he wanted to say anything. “We were in our apartment and we got a hint of the smoke,” the young man said. “We were smelling it and then my mom woke up, my dad woke up. I woke up last, and then suddenly, it just got overwhelming, and we went out of the apartment and stood in front and we were checking if anything, anyone was saying anything…. We called the super. The super didn’t pick up and we didn’t really see anyone, but then we saw like a family leave downstairs.”

 

The young man continued, “So we went back inside, and we continued thinking about what we were going to do, and we took our things and we decided to just leave, and then after we left, we saw more people coming down. So, the smoke was like entirely covering our apartment. It was so hard to breathe. We had to put towels on to try to breathe.” Several residents were seen wearing masks.

Asked which floor he had been on, the young man said “We were on the fifth floor, so the the one floor down beneath the… what happened.” Asked if they saw the flames as he and his parents were exiting the building, the young man said, “No. So, no flames when we were coming out, but what shocked us when we were coming out, we saw like the amount of smoke and a lot of flames through the windows. So, we were shocked that it was happening right above our heads.”

 

Asked if they could feel the heat of the flames, the young man said, “No, but it was like the smoke was so overwhelming. Like it almost it was like suffocating almost, yeah.”

 

Asked if they heard a fire alarm, the young man said, ‘Well, we heard an alarm, but it was a very faint alarm that came from the sixth floor, but it was not loud enough to really wake up anybody. The fifth alarm didn’t work.” Asked if they heard any other alarms on the other floors as they went down, the young man said, “No. As we went down, we didn’t hear any other alarms.”

Norwood News also spoke with Lorens, 22, and his girlfriend, Maryann, 20, and asked if they could tell us how they got out. “I’m gonna be honest. I’m not sure what happened because I was sleeping,” Lorens said. “My mom was the one that woke me up, and the neighbors. So, from what I heard, as soon as I woke up, I heard that it started from the sixth floor, like towards the front of the building and then started moving like towards the back. From there, I think there was a mom with a kid that came running down and she was like, ‘The building is burning. The building is burning.'”

 

Lorens continued, “But we didn’t hear alarms so we didn’t think much of it. So, I could have been sleeping right now still if it wasn’t for my mom, because I didn’t hear no alarm. After that, I just ran down from 6 a.m. Like it started at 6 a.m. We grabbed the animals, and from there we didn’t know how it started or what caused it.”

 

Asked if the pets were ok, Lorens said they were. “Yeah, my mom got them. Yes, a blessing. Thank God that we okay. I can’t complain. I can’t complain. Yeah, I didn’t hear no alarm at all, not a single alarm. Then, that’s when we heard the neighbors running down because I guess it went towards like the back of the building, and the mother and her kids ran down the street.”

Asked how his mom had woken up, Lorens said, “She smelled the smoke, but she also said the neighbors knocked on her door, trying to wake her up, trying to like alert her. When they alerted her, I heard her. She came to me and alerted me. That’s when I woke up and I try to like make my way down as fast as possible.”

 

Reflecting on the close call, Lorens said, “We can’t complain. We can’t. We can’t hate nobody for this. We can’t blame nobody for this. Ah, you just gotta thank God for being alive. That’s it.” Asked if he heard any type of explosion, Lorens said, “No. Yeah, just straight. No, yeah. I mean, the neighbors screaming. Yeah, you can hear the neighbors screaming too.”

 

Maryann said she didn’t even smell the smoke. “Hardly, because it was in the other side of the building,” Lorens said. “Three towers, they all connect. We didn’t really smell it or mentally experience it until we came out the apartment, and that’s when I seen everybody brought in water and it was a mess! It was a mess! It was a mess! Scary, because I just woke up.”

 

Asked if there are a lot of older people living in the building, Lorens said there are. “Like my mom, she’s not well, like going up the stairs or going down the stairs.” Asked if he saw flames as he exited, he said, “When I came out, I definitely seen the windows and flames – really scary.” He said the firefighters broke the windows from the outside. Asked if all three buildings had been evacuated, he said he believed they were.

 

Lorens added, “I’m glad that you came to me because now that you came to me and asked, I really do feel okay. Not like that because out there, the front cameras don’t work, the alarms don’t work. I’m also not like feeling safe. I don’t know if you know about the fire doors that’s in the building that they closed out?”

 

Lorens explained that the fire safety doors are closed for safety at night time and added, “Because we close them in for safety, we’re causing ourselves to be trapped between certain parts of the building, which makes it more unsafe.” He said where an apartment opened onto a section of an internal corridor located between two closed fire doors, it was hard to open the fire doors due to the smoke affecting visibility. [The purpose of keeping fire doors closed is to contain the fire and smoke and stop it from spreading.]

 

“So, after I experienced that today, I feel unsafe, I’m gonna be honest,” Lorens said. “After today, it was unsafe. I didn’t hear no alarm. I could have been…. If my mom went to work like she does at 6 a.m., and I would have stayed sleeping, I would not know [about the fire].” Lorens added that his mom was supposed to leave at 6 a.m. but didn’t in the end because of the fire. “I’m gonna be honest. I’m a heavy sleeper. Yeah, I would have not known nothing. I would have slept right through this.”

 

He said his adrenaline and heart were racing. “I’m scared,” he said. “That’s when they told me the building was burning down so I really had to evacuate. I didn’t hear nothing so I thought they were lying. Oh my God! I thought they were lying so I came outside. I see the fire!”

 

Later, the Red Cross provided a further update on the status of displaced residents, saying 60 households, comprising 159 residents, [29 children and 130 adults] and 30 pets were registered for recovery resources by the organization following the fire, and that the reception center which had been opened at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center on DeKalb Avenue to assist residents had since closed.

 

Red Cross officials said resources offered included securing a safe place to stay through the weekend while residents await more information about their homes, service of hot lunches and dinners, and registration for Red Cross casework assistance in the coming days.

 

Residents who have not yet connected with the Red Cross and need help with their recovery after the fire should call 1-877-RED CROSS (877-833-2767) and select Option 1.

 

The Red Cross thanked Mosholu Montefiore Community Center for sharing space with the impacted residents, as well as helping support resident needs with clothes, meals, shelf-stable food, and personal and pet care items.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

 

Sign up for a free smoke alarm here. Click here to read FDNY’s fire safety tips. “During a fire, always close the door behind you!” fire officials say. “It helps contain smoke and flames, giving you precious time to escape.”