Chopper flying overhead on Eastern/Underhill at 6am!

ana.log wrote: dunno, but i noticed an awful lot of police/ambulance/fire activity east of washington early this morning on almost every block (sterling, st. john's, lincoln). maybe it was related.

yeah... i went out early to move my car and was greeted by a bazillion flashing lights at park and washington... it almost gave me a seizure.

marthajoy wrote: On Park Place between Washington and Classon there was a pretty bad fire last night, the whole front door is gone and the vestibule is completely charred. I was told by someone on the block that it happened around 5:30.... a loud noise and flames shooting up the front of the building. No one was killed, a couple of people went to the hospital for smoke inhalation.

I actually live right across the street from it. And came out my door at 5:20 to head to the gym and the place was engulfed in flames. I know a couple of people in the building and they have been getting threats from their landlord that he was going to find a way to get them out beginning in the new year because he really wants to upgrade the building to charge more in rent and most of the tenants have been there for 20-30 years. So now the arson squad is investigating. Fire started in the first floor hallway and then raced all the way up the stairs. It was unreal. Fire department had to break all the windows in the front to keep it from reaching flashover.

So its looking like the landlord got his way the wrong way. Sucks because the people who live in that building are really nice people. What an evil thing to do. Reminds me of the fires in the Bronx in the 70s.

marthajoy wrote: That is so sick. If it was the landlord, I guess he is after insurance money at this point... looks like it would take alot of $ to repair the damage. Let us know if you hear anything else... I feel so bad for the people who have lost their homes....

Yeah, I keep wandering out to find out more. Unfortunately, most of the tenants are now at the Red Cross (fortunate for them, unfortunate for me in wanting to find out the scoop). Sounds like the apartments in the back were spared and the front of the building got the worst of it. Lets hope someone still has the letters he has been writing. Landlord sure is stupid to so thinly veil his intent if that ends up being what it comes down to.

And yeah, I feel bad for them too. By the time I got out there, they were already being attended to, otherwise my apartment would have become a refugee center. Not many people are up at that hour, you know?

armchair_warrior wrote: sounds almost like old ny for getting tenants out.

totally. hence my reference to the drama in the Bronx in the 70s. I hope that CH doesn't follow that path.

if this is true that be horrible. could be a accident.

interesting though, b/c when i lived in chelsea in the mid-90's and the first floor tenants set the building on fire, the deal was that the apt.s were to be renovated and the rent ceased until they were finished and then kept the same as before the fire -- i assummed that this was thus the law? what rights do the tenants actually have?

In case you haven't seen it yet... photos from http://www.citynoise.org/article/2645

It was odd to see all the damage, the broken glass, and personal affects in the first-floor apartments open to the elements.