4 Firefighters Injured In Ceiling Collapse Battling Upper East Side Restaurant Fire
/ CBS New York
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Four firefighters were injured when a ceiling collapsed on them early Tuesday morning on the Upper East Side.
The fire broke out at around 5 a.m. at a five-story building on First Avenue near 95th Street.
Fire officials believe it started at a restaurant on the first floor, and the flames quickly spread to the apartments above.
Residents told CBS2 a quick-thinking superintendent banged on all the doors and got everyone out.
"When we came out to the hallway to go downstairs, it was already clouded with smoke. You couldn't see anything," resident Tyler White said.
White said he ran out of his third-floor apartment on 95th Street and First Avenue just after 5 a.m., moments after hearing and smelling something strange.
"Sounded like something popping, like a balloon. Then, it sounded like the gas was coming out," he said. "My roommate ended up saying there was smoke going on. Our bathroom was filled with it."
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Meanwhile, on the ground floor flames were already tearing through the Dragon One restaurant, and smoke quickly spread to the rest of the five-story building.
"My roommate over here banged on my door, so we jumped up very quickly, grabbed a jacket, grabbed some stuff," resident Sean Pixley said. "There was smoke in our apartment."
Firefighters showed up in under five minutes. It took more than 160 members to put out the fire, which the FDNY said appeared to start in the rear of the restaurant.
As they were fighting it, the ceiling collapsed.
"It was a drop ceiling with ceiling tiles, it was a wooden grid with tin, and that dropped, injuring four of our members," said FDNY Assistant Chief of Fire Operations Michael Gala. "Two of them were transferred to Cornell Medical Center. Two of them were transported to St. Luke's Hospital."
Fire officials said they are expected to be OK.
No residents were hurt, but some said they felt for the restaurant owners, who have been through so much over the last two years.
"They opened up after COVID started. Super lovely people, always smiling, super nice," said Pixley. "Really a shame that this happened to them."
The Red Cross was assisting more than two dozen residents who couldn't return home.
"It can be replaced, but at least all the lives got out," White said.
The fire marshal remained on scene trying to determine exactly what caused the blaze.
