Video courtesy of Citizen

The FDNY is investigating a fire that broke out at Tracey Towers in Jerome Park on Friday, July 23. According to a video posted by Citizen’s App users, smoke was seen billowing seemingly from two sides of one of the towers at a certain point.

 

Jean Hill, president of the Tracy Towers Tenants’ Organization, which had just held its last meeting before the summer break at the Mitchell Lama housing complex the previous evening, told the Norwood News on Friday that the fire had broken out on the 21st floor and had been extinguished.

 

“I’m fine. It was actually some floors underneath in an apartment here underneath in Building 20 and it was pretty bad,” she said. “We probably had about 12 fire trucks out here.” She said residents received notices on their phones from the management company and were informed when the fire was brought under control.

 

“The fire department was coming upstairs and they were knocking on doors because in the beginning, they weren’t sure where the fire was coming from,” said Hill. “So, they knocked on our door to ask if they could come and look off the terrace but then one of the firemen came and said, ‘No, we figured it’s on 24L in building 20,’ so they raced downstairs there to put it out.”

 

She said that, as a result, there was a lot of water and some of the water got inside the elevator shaft. “Because once they start shooting water, it goes everywhere,” Hill said.

 

The tenants organization president, who is a former chair and current member of Bronx Community Board 7, said that the high rise elevators were out of order for a time, adding, “I think one of them might be a back up and running right now.” Hill mentioned that when all the high-rise elevators are shut down, it means residents on her side of the upper side of the building have to walk down to the 20th floor to get out of the complex. Tracey Towers is home to a number of senior citizens, one of whom was seen with a walker at the residents’ meeting the previous evening.

Hill said the management company told residents that the FDNY was still carrying out its investigation into the fire. “We don’t really know what happened,” she said. “The smoke was coming up and I had to close my windows on the sides with the bedrooms, and it got into my back bathroom because the “L” apartment is near to my apartment, even though it’s three stories down, three floors down, that smoke rises!”

 

Hill then spoke about the fire that had broken out in the building last year, in early March. “We had a tremendous fire here and it did a lot of damage so, hopefully, this is not as bad because it seemed to be contained on the 24th floor, but the water has kind of gotten into other people’s apartments,” she said. “I know that the management company sent out notices because they have the phone numbers [of the tenants], so they sent phone messages telling people what’s going on. They asked people to stay in their apartments.”

 

Coincidentally, fires had been a topic of discussion at the previous evening’s tenants’ meeting. Hill said, “Two things I try to tell people here, because I’ve lived here a very long time: do not run out of your apartment if the fire is not in it, because the apartments at Tracy are fire retardant, which means that the fire will be contained inside the apartment and won’t burn through, as long as you keep the door closed.”

 

She continued, “But if you expose the air to it, and it gets out, then it does more damage. The bad fire we had [last year] was because it was in the compacter room, and went all the way up to the 41st floor. It did a lot of damage to the hallways. Smoke got into people’s apartments. It was very dangerous, that fire we had last year. We all had to run out to the terraces, and that’s the only thing that saved our lives. If we didn’t have these terraces, it would have been holy hell in here.”

 

Hill said, by contrast, Friday’s fire was contained on the 24th floor, in apartment 24L. “I don’t know what burnt down there. I don’t know what the cause of the fire was,” she added. “The fire department did get to put it out and, you know, sent out the whole complement of fire trucks to get in here to try to get to it so they were able to contain it. We’ll find out probably tomorrow or over the weekend [the cause]. I’ll probably take a walk out and see myself, and see what the hell went on.”

 

The FDNY confirmed to Norwood News on Friday that it received an alert at 11:23 a.m. regarding a fire at 20 Mosholu Parkway South in the 41-story, hi-rise building and sent 20 fire units to respond, comprising 78 firefighters.

 

A fire department official confirmed that one person was later treated for a minor injury at Jacobi Hospital, and the fire was brought under control at 12.14 p.m. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. FDNY also confirmed there was no information on file pertaining to any evacuation at the site.

 

The more serious fire which Hill spoke about, and which broke out at the towers last year on March 10, resulted in 16 injuries, as reported at the time by several news outlets, including Bronx News 12.

 

During the latest Tracey Towers tenants’ organization meeting, held on Thursday night, residents seemed to agree that the top three issues facing them in the housing tower blocks, among others, were the elevators, which they said were sometimes out of order, the laundry rooms, where the machines did not always work, and security in the building which they said was not optimal as people seemed to just walk in off the street unchallenged and the downstairs doors were not locked.

 

One resident also mentioned that the intercom did not always work in the elevators and did not connect to the security team, meaning residents would have to use their own phones (if they were charged) to call for help in case of emergency. One female resident mentioned that she had concerns about the amount of things left out on some of the terraces by some residents because they had the potential to become a fire hazard if, for example, a cigarette was dropped on them from a higher floor.

 

Tracey Towers tenant, Tony Taylor, told the Norwood News he lives in Building 40 and wasn’t aware that there was a fire until he was going out and saw all the fire trucks outside the building. He added that he did not hear any fire alarm, he questioned if the fire alarm worked and when it was last tested.

 

Norwood News has reached out the RY Management Co. Inc, the management company for comment.

 

The next Tracey Towers Tenants Organization meeting will be held on September 16.

 

Norwood News is following up with the FDNY on the cause of the fire.

 

Editor’s Note: Readers are reminded that not all buildings are fire retardant, and therefore fire procedures may differ from one building to the next. Residents should refer to the relevant fire instructions for their own building in case of emergency or check with their own management company in case of doubt. Further information about fires and safety can be found on FDNY’s fire code document, here. 

 

*David Greene contributed to this story.