by JOE GOULD
It was a block immune from drug dealing and violence, residents said, a place where kids played stickball and parents watched each other's children. But a swift-moving fire swept through this idyllic pocket of the South Bronx early last Sunday, leaving nothing but memories and five destroyed rowhouses. Most had been home to upwardly mobile immigrant families, said residents of Concord Ave., near 147th St., a block from St. Mary's Park. With homes that featured hardwood floors, high ceilings and some grassy backyards, families stayed even when the surrounding Mott Haven was troubled. Hibiscus still climbs the fence of a community garden on the corner. "It was an oasis," said Jorge Burgos, 46, sitting on a curb across from 503 Concord, where his mother - "the mayor of the block" - lived, and where he raised his three children. "It's the kind of place where in the winter, if you cleaned your snow, you cleaned your neighbor's snow, too," said Burgos, a film set electrician. "They would do the same thing for you." A day after the fire, workers boarded up windows while Burgos and 10 other residents gathered in the street. Barred from their burned-out homes, they stared in disbelief, hugged each other and vowed to rebuild. The fire started in 509 Concord Ave. after 4 a.m. on Sunday. Fanned by strong winds, it engulfed the semidetached 507, 509 and 511, scorching the buildings on either side. By the time firefighters managed to control the blaze two hours later, scores were left homeless. Nineteen firefighters and three residents were hurt, though not seriously. Among them was Carlos Martinez's 68-year-old mother, Maria Estella Lopez. She's asthmatic and had to be hospitalized for smoke inhalation, he said. Martinez, 42, was up late when he smelled smoke, looked out his window and saw flames, he said. He woke up his 5-year-old cousin, his aunt and his mother. "She was nervous, and she couldn't breathe," said Martinez, who lives in 511 Concord. By Monday, the family had ventured inside, but there was nothing to salvage, not even the religious statues from Lopez's native Colombia, among them the Virgen de las Lajas and the Milagroso de Buga. "Everything was damaged by the water. Everything is wet," said a relative, Patricia Reyes, 36, of Pelham Parkway. "You can't replace the memories." Aida Capifali, 54, said that her building, 507, was more than 100 years old, and that her family had lived in it for 60 years. Her Filipino father and Puerto Rican mother moved in with her older sister, Elizabeth, as Irish and Italian families on the block were moving out. "It's still a tight community, and we never had any mishaps," said Capifali. "This block was untouchable." Residents said the block initially fought a halfway house for recovering drug addicts, but the idyllic aura seems to extended over the building, and several years later there have yet to be any problems. Lamont Hunt, a 33-year-old contractor, stood in front of 505, where he and his parents lived, and said he and his brother had played stickball in the street, just like the generation before them. "It's gone. It's going to get demolished. They're talking about taking it all down," he said, adding quickly: "They're gonna build it right back. That's what's gonna happen, for sure."
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