A Sunday afternoon apartment fire tore through the fifth floor of 538 Claremont Parkway in the Claremont section of the Bronx, leaving one resident injured and rattling the mixed-use building from top to bottom. Firefighters responded after a 2:21 p.m. alarm and pushed through heavy smoke and flames as onlookers crowded the sidewalk. Crews located one person trapped on the fifth floor and carried them out, though officials had not released the victim’s condition as of Sunday evening.
Rescue on the fifth floor
Fire Battalion Chief Pat Keena said the trapped resident “was unable to get out without fire department help,” according to News 12. A neighbor told the outlet they watched firefighters bring someone down on a stretcher, while crews stayed on scene for hours, picking through debris and dousing lingering hot spots.
Storefront owner cleans up after blaze
On the first floor, where ground-level businesses sit beneath the apartments, shop owner Hamed Saadeh was left sweeping up shattered glass from his storefront. Saadeh told News 12, “This is really sad. I was worried, I put my life here, actually, in the building.” The outlet noted Saadeh has operated an insurance company in that space for 32 years.
Neighborhood has seen other large blazes
The Claremont stretch of the Bronx has been hit with several large, multi-alarm fires this winter. One earlier incident ripped through a deli and the apartments above it, leaving multiple people hurt and displacing dozens of residents, according to ABC7. Those recent fires highlight how quickly flames can spread on mixed-use blocks and how responding can get complicated when crews are navigating busy commercial streets and upper-floor apartments at the same time.
Common causes and safety notes
Investigators have not yet said what sparked Sunday’s blaze. The National Fire Protection Association reports that cooking remains the leading cause of home-structure fires and injuries and that apartments are especially prone to kitchen-origin fires. The NFPA also notes that working smoke alarms and regularly practiced escape plans significantly reduce deaths and injuries in residential fires.
City property records list 538 Claremont Parkway as a five-story, mixed-use building with storefronts on the ground floor, a layout that can make evacuations and fire access more challenging, according to the NYC assessment portal. Fire marshals typically handle the investigation into how multi-story apartment fires start, and the Department of Buildings or FDNY can issue vacate orders if they find significant structural damage…