by DOUG AUER
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A two-alarm fire gutted a vacant apartment building in West Brighton early yesterday morning, sending eight of the more than 100 firefighters to the hospital with minor injuries.
The firefighters were treated and released from Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton.
Firefighters were called to 1155 Castleton Ave., a two-story brick building, around 3:30 a.m. The fire began on the first floor, causing the second story to partially collapse, according to an FDNY spokesman.
Fire marshals will be investigating the blaze.
According to Gerina Nelson, who lives in an apartment at neighboring 1157 Castleton Ave., vagrants ran out of the building once the fire started raging out of control.
"Everybody on this block has been complaining about this building for a long time," said Ms. Nelson. She noted that despite the locked and chained front door, homeless people still manage to break in through the rear entrance.
By 4 a.m., firefighters called in an additional 25 fire trucks and about 106 firefighters. The blaze was brought under control at about 5:16 a.m.
Yesterday afternoon, all that remained of the structure's rear -- which empties onto a gravel alley accessible off Barker Street -- was a gaping hole, broken bricks strewn about and charred and dangling wooden beams. Piled nearby were a mangled bed frame, burned jeans and a broken bicycle.
On the front door were slapped two Buildings Department vacate notices -- one in English, the other in Spanish.
Phil Monachino, owner of Fresh Wash II Laundromat at adjacent 1153 Castleton Ave., said a back room of his business was also badly damaged. There were holes in the ceiling near some vending and video game machines, metal framework hanging in the air, with soggy, ash-covered insulation littering the floor.
 |
