Eight firefighters were hospitalized with minor injuries Tuesday after a massive blaze tore through a Bronx home, officials said.
The fire erupted in the back of the home on E. 232nd St. near Laconia Ave. in Wakefield about 8:30 a.m. and quickly spread throughout the entire structure, said FDNY Chief Ron Spadafora.
“The fire spread from the lower floors to the second floor into the attic,” Spadafora said. “We’re still having trouble getting into the attic to extinguish the fire but all the visible fire has been extinguished.”
More than 170 firefighters arrived at the green, aluminum-sided home within three minutes, but the fire already began eating away at the building.
Con Edison had to shut off overhead power lines in front of the structure so firefighters could get close enough to put ladders against the burning building.
The fire was put out in about two hours, officials said.
The damage was so extensive that the city Department of Buildings will have to come in and see if the building needs to be torn down, Spadafora said.
The eight wounded firefighters were brought to Jacobi Medical Center for treatment, he added.
“They are being checked out for possibly minor burns, to the neck, to the lower extremities,” Chief Spadafora said. “Nothing serious in regards to firefighter injuries. No civilian injuries, so that’s a good thing.”
The building owner and his future wife managed to get out safely, family friend Sonny Williams, 46, said at the scene.
“Only the homeowner and his fiancée were home,” Williams said. “He was on the first floor. She smelled smoke. He opened the back door and saw flames.”
They ran out right away,” Williams said. “They were doing OK, given the circumstances.”
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
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