Investigators from the FDNY’s Fire Marshal unit are investigating the second blaze to strike a commercial business along a popular shopping hub over a three-day period in the Norwood section of the Bronx.

 

FDNY officials reported that the fire broke out inside the W&K Beauty Salon & Barber Shop, located at 6 West Gun Hill Road. According to an unnamed official, the fire broke out at 10.47 p.m., on Sunday, Sept. 27 and 60 FDNY members from 12 fire units brought the blaze under control by 11.28 p.m.

 

Fire Marshals from the FDNY’s Bureau of Fire Investigation were at the scene of the fire the following morning, speaking with workers and surveying the damage. The beauty salon appeared to be gutted, though it was not immediately clear if some of the equipment, like the fixed hair dryers, could be salvaged or not. Workers from the salon declined to comment.

An employee of Oak Furniture, located next door to the W&K Beauty Salon, said that in order to contain the fire, firefighters forced entry into the El Valle Restaurant located on nearby cross street, Jerome Avenue, and that may have prevented the blaze from spreading to a further row of shops located along that avenue. The furniture shop escaped both the fire and the gallons of water hosed onto nearby buildings, unscathed.

 

Next door to the beauty salon on West Gun Hill Road, at a still-unnamed juice bar that had opened since the pandemic hit the city, the man behind the counter said the bar had suffered “no damage,” as a result of the fire, despite a heavy smell of smoke lingering in the air.

 

Asked if he thought the Bronx was burning again, in reference to the now infamous decade between 1970 and 1980, when parts of the Bronx lost more than 97 percent of buildings to fire and abandonment, while the city suffered through a period of great economic unrest, the man replied, “I don’t know man, but something’s wrong, because it happened again across the street.”

 

The man was referring to a recent Sept. 24th fire that had gutted three other stores on East Gun Hill Road, D’Amigos Restaurant and Bar, P&S Wigs and Jewelry, and a beauty supply shop, located between Jerome Avenue and DeKalb Avenue, as reported by Norwood News.

By the time the second fire occurred, the FDNY had already been pursuing their investigation into the Sept. 24th blaze that destroyed the three shops, collectively located between numbers 10 and 14 East Gun Hill Road.

 

One resident said at the time of the incident that the beauty shop had just changed owners, and that the new owners didn’t have fire insurance.

 

Three firefighters were injured in the Sept. 24th first blaze which was reported at 1.27 a.m. The fire was brought under control by 108 firefighters from 25 fire units at 3.02 a.m.

A third fire in Norwood was reported in a 4th floor apartment at 3120 Bainbridge Avenue, at 9.26 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 28. Sixty FDNY members from 12 fire units were called in to battle the fire, which was brought under control 32 minutes later.

 

A fire official reported that, “one critical patient (a civilian) was transported to Jacobi [Medical Center]” following the incident. No additional information was available about the blaze.