Fire in the Apthorp
Walking to the subway to get to work this morning, I saw smoke coming out of the Apthorp, on the 78th Street side. It was a lot of smoke, and, as I got closer to West End, I saw actual flames licking out of one of the windows on a high floor.
I was going to call 911 on my phone, but I saw a doorman on West End look up, look surprised, and run inside to get to the telephone. After he ran in, I took a couple quick photos. The flames were gone by then, but there was still a lot of smoke. Glass broke, possibly from the next window over.
I walked around to Broadway on the 79th Street side of the building, and saw the fire trucks pulling in at the building entrance and next to La Caridad, one pair coming from downtown and one from uptown (the 83rd Street station?). The doorman opened the courtyard gate to let the firemen in.
I didn’t stick around, but headed to the subway to get to work. Here are my pictures, though:
Reminder to self: pick up a fire extinguisher this weekend. Presumably, it was a kitchen fire that the apartment occupant was able to put out. I haven’t seen any mention of this in the usual local news sources, so I guess it wasn’t particularly serious.