Four firefighters were injured after a five-alarm blaze erupted inside a Bronx auto-body shop Saturday morning, officials said.
Around 200 firefighters and EMS rushed to the scene of heavy smoke around 11:23 a.m. at Zeny Tire & Rim Corporation near Rosedale and Bronx River avenues in Soundview, where the one-story building began to collapse.
“There was an awful a lot of fire. We also had concerns about the structural stability of the building. We did have a collapse of the building,” said FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito. “One of the walls to the rear, we were able to identify that before it collapsed and remove all our members. We had no injuries related to that collapse.”
The auto-body shop was occupied with a few people inside but no one was injured, FDNY Acting Commissioner Mark Guerra said.
The fire spread to two other private houses along Rosedale Ave., causing extension damage and displacing 16 people who were occupying six total apartments, Esposito said.
Four firefighters were transported by EMS to local hospitals with minor injuries.
The fire was placed under control around 2:28 p.m. and its cause was still under investigation on Saturday.
In Brooklyn, two people were injured after a fire broke out inside an apartment of the Stuyvesant Gardens Senior Citizen Center at Malcolm X Blvd. and Gates Ave. in Bedford Stuyvesant around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, according to News 12.
