Thirteen people were reported injured following an afternoon residential fire in the Kingsbridge section of The Bronx on Tuesday, March 17, [St. Patrick’s Day] in a six-building complex which houses around seven daycare centers. The incident follows another large fire, as reported, where several small businesses were damaged on East Gun Hill Road in the Laconia section of the East Bronx on March 6. The latest Kingsbridge blaze and other recent Bronx fires have prompted Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and the FDNY to launch a further series of fire education and safety workshops across the borough.

 

Fire department officials said they received a call at 2.58 p.m. on Tuesday for a reported fire on the third floor of a multiple dwelling [made up of six buildings] located at 3410 Kingsbridge Avenue between West 234th Street and West 236th Street.

 

FLAMES FROM A residential fire are seen bursting from a third-floor apartment of a residential building at 3410 Kingsbridge Avenue in the Kingsbridge section of The Bronx on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Video courtesy of a local resident

They said a second alarm was raised at 3.06 p.m. and 46 units comprising 141 fire and EMS personnel responded to the scene. Large flames and thick gray smoke were seen bursting out of the building in several videos recorded by residents who had evacuated the building and gathered on the street below in shock. The day itself, was quite windy, which may have exacerbated the situation.

 

FDNY officials said thirteen civilians incurred minor injuries and were transported to area hospitals for treatment.  They said no additional information was available regarding their condition or their descriptions. Some media outlets reported that there were some children among the injured. FDNY officials said the blaze was brought under control at 4.11 p.m.

Norwood News spoke to resident, Ira Stelps, and asked him if he could describe what had happened. “I was inside the building. I’m on the fifth floor and  I was just hanging out, sending messages to a friend and I suddenly smelled smoke, but you don’t know. It was just a hint at that time so I go into my bedroom and I see the smoke coming through the door, so I then immediately grabbed my keys and my wallet and left,” he said.

FIREFIGHTERS RESPOND TO a fire at 3410 Kingsbridge Avenue in the Kingsbridge section of The Bronx on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Video by Síle Moloney

Asked if he had been alone, he said he had been. “After that, I was just outside watching it like everybody else,” Stelps said. Asked if he had come down the fire escape, he said, “No, through the front door. It [the fire] was on the other side of the building from where I live. I live in the D section. It was in the C section.”

Asked if he knew which floor the fire had started on, Stelps said, “From the fourth floor from what I see but they had….. The floor below on the third and the floor above on the fifth, they had to have been affected so you see all those windows knocked out.”

 

Asked if the fire was mainly on the exterior side facing Kingsbridge Avenue as opposed to the interior courtyard side of the building structure, he said, “The firefighters were working from both ends.” Burned out windows were later seen both on the courtyard interior side as well as on the exterior side.

Asked if it had been scary, Stelps said, “Yeah, you never know because you’re relaxed one day and you’re not worried about anything, and it doesn’t have to be in your apartment. It could be somebody right next door to you or below you, and then your life changes but hopefully my apartment is fine except for maybe some residual smoke I might have to clean off the walls.”

 

Norwood News asked Stelps if there had been a lot of smoke as he was exiting. He said not so much in his section. “In my apartment, there was smoke coming because they [different building sections] attach,” he said. “There’s a two-door between each section since we don’t have a fire escape so the smoke was coming in through that door.”

Asked if fire evacuation practice drills were ever held in the building, Stelps said, “No,” adding that there was information in the apartment that explained what to do in the event of a fire. He added, “In all honesty, it’s like if you’re on an airplane that’s going down and you’re reflecting back on the…[safety instructions].”

RESIDENTS CLEAN UP after a fire broke out at 3410 Kingsbridge Avenue in the Kingsbridge section of The Bronx on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Video by Síle Moloney

Some other residents who said they were at work when the fire broke out were seen hurrying back to check on their apartments and belongings.

 

Inside the building, we spoke to a young female resident estimated to be around 20 and asked if she could explain what had happened from her perspective. Speaking in Spanish, she said, “I can’t really say much because I was sleeping.” She said her sister, who was under 18, woke her up. Her sister then said she heard shouts from neighbors and noticed a lot of smoke.

“A LOT of smoke,” she said. “The corridor was filled with smoke. We saw the lady next door shouting and we said we better go downstairs.” Asked if the next-door neighbor had been trapped inside her apartment, the sister said, “No, she had already gone down.”  Asked if they had been scared, they nodded.

 

Later, outside the building, we also spoke to another male resident, Victor Fernandez, who talked about an elderly female resident who was in her nineties who lived alone and who had been taken to hospital following the fire. He said he had been talking to her the day before. Asked if she had any help. “Yeah, she has a home attendant,” Fernandez said. “So, I don’t know if the home attendant came today or what happened. I’m not sure.”

We asked if he could explain what happened from his perspective. “From what I saw, I thought it was a fire in a car, here on the street, because I was smelling rubber,” Fernandez said, adding that at that point he was inside his apartment. “But then, I saw the commotion and I looked up and I saw it was a fire in the building so I came outside to see.” Asked if he saw the flames, he said, “Actually, no, I saw the smoke because I was on the other side.”

 

Fernandez said later he saw the flames from the Kingsbridge Avenue side and said it was crazy. He said there hadn’t been a lot of smoke on his side on the first floor. “From what I heard, a lot of people couldn’t come out because of the smoke and had to go via the fire escape.”

Asked if the older woman had been hurt, Fernandez said, “No, I think she had some smoke inhalation, and she was a little red. I don’t know if it was from the fire or what. Could have been her [blood] pressure.” We asked if there were ever any fire evacuation drills, and he said, “No.”

 

We also asked if there were a lot of older people living in the building and Fernandez said now, there were. Asked if it was about half of the residents, he said, “Well, since the pandemic, it’s probably like a third now.” Asked if there were small kids, he said, “Oh yeah, we have like one, two, three, I think we have like seven daycares in the building.”  Fernandez continued, “That’s what we were more worried about, the daycares on the fourth floor. It [the fire] was right under the daycare.”

 

As reported, Norwood News recently spoke to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani about safety at daycare centers in New York City in the context of his roll-out of 2-K free daycare later this fall. More to follow.

RESIDENTS CLEAN UP after a fire broke out at 3410 Kingsbridge Avenue in the Kingsbridge section of The Bronx on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Video by Síle Moloney

Norwood News has reached out to the Red Cross to ask about the number of people displaced following the fire and will share any feedback we receive.

 

On Wednesday, March 18, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson announced that, in conjunction with the FDNY, in response to the high number of fires experienced across the borough in recent times, fire education and safety workshops would be rolled out across the borough in the weeks ahead. “We hope that you will find the time to attend one of these important workshops for you and your family,” she said.

“From smoke alarm demonstrations, to common causes of fires, our community is learning emergency preparedness tips on how to stay safe and ready in any situation,” she added, “Find a workshop that works best for you and your family. Locations are listed on our website.”

 

As reported, two injuries were reported following a recent residential fire in the Norwood section of the Bronx on Decatur Avenue on March 13.

FIRE UNITS RESPOND to a fire at 3410 Kingsbridge Avenue in the Kingsbridge section of The Bronx on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Video by Síle Moloney

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.”

 

Visit our YouTube channel for more videos of the Kingsbridge fire.