Mount Vernon Fire Displaces 54 Families - NYTimes

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On this Christmas Day, let's keep things in perspective and take a moment to wish all these families and, especially, children sleeping in shelters, hope for a speedy return to their homes.

December 26, 2004

Mount Vernon Fire Displaces 54 Families

By ALAN FEUER

 

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y., Dec. 25 - A ragged group of people sat huddled at a folding table in a drafty community center here. It was Christmas Day, but there was little to celebrate. They were still in their bedclothes. They smelled of smoke. They had no gifts, except their lives.

On Friday, Christmas Eve, a fire tore through their five-story building on the south side of town and left them homeless. Although no residents were injured, their Christmas stockings were consumed by the flames and their Christmas trees burned. 

"My 6-year-old daughter doesn't understand why Santa burned the house down," Jessica Vega said, trying to make sense of something that seemed to her to make no sense at all.

"I tried explaining it to her, but I couldn't," she went on. "Every time I started, I started to cry."

Fire officials in Mount Vernon, which is just north of the Bronx, said the blaze began about 11 p.m. Friday on the third floor of an apartment house at 5 West Fourth Street. It was a powerful, fast-moving fire, officials said, one that required Mount Vernon's entire nighttime shift of 16 firefighters as well as help from departments in Pelham Manor, Yonkers, Greenville, Fairview, Eastchester, New Rochelle and White Plains. 

The officials said that seven firefighters had been slightly injured in the blaze and were treated at local hospitals and released. The officials said it seemed as if an electrical fire of some sort was to blame but refused to say more until an investigation was conducted. 

At the Macedonia Community Center, however, residents of the building said the fire began when an 8-year-old boy, left unsupervised at home, stuck a sandwich wrapped in aluminum foil inside a microwave oven and the oven erupted into flames.

"The only thing I grabbed was my jacket and my mother," said Corey Campbell, who lived on the fifth floor. His mother has arthritis, he said. As smoke filled the hallway, he said, he told her: " 'Don't panic. Get your clothes and coat and put your sneakers on. We're going down the fire escape.' "

Mr. Campbell, a 25-year-old security guard, said his plans for Christmas had gone up in smoke. 

"The tree is melted," he said in a deadpan tone. "You can see my neighbor's apartment through the walls."

The brick building, which occupies the northwest corner of Fourth Street and Fourth Avenue, was surrounded by piles of broken glass on Saturday. Shattered windows allowed a glimpse of the blackened rooms inside.

Fenton N. Soliz, chairman of the Westchester County chapter of the American Red Cross, said six families, or 15 to 20 people, would remain at the community center until they found somewhere to go. Of the 54 families that lived in the building, most had already moved in with friends and family, he said.

"Right now, we're handing out food and clothing vouchers to the victims," Mr. Soliz said. "We want to make sure that seniors get any prescription drugs they need and that everybody has somewhere to go."

As for Christmas, Mr. Soliz said the Mount Vernon Fire Department had collected gifts for children who lost theirs. Indeed, at the firehouse on Third Street, toys were piled up and waiting in an office.

Al Everett, the chief of the department, said that Jack Iannuzzi, a firefighter with the Larchmont department, brought the gifts after hearing that children might have to go without on Christmas Day. There were puzzles and books and Hot Wheels cars and hockey sticks and candy canes.

"The only trouble is getting everybody all together in one place to distribute the stuff," Chief Everett said.

So he got on his cellphone and called around to find the homeless children.