6 People Injured After Fire Destroys Businesses, Homes In Harlem
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Six people were injured after a fire destroyed businesses and homes in Harlem Monday morning.
CBS2's Magdalena Doris reported a fire ripped through the Pro-Tech Hardware store on West 145th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard just after 6:30 a.m., spreading to neighboring stores and apartments.
Tenants inside said they were alerted only when they saw the black smoke.
"We come to the window and the firefighters take us downstairs," Sekou Kantu said as he and his children couldn't make it out on their own. Kantu added that there were no alarms going off in the building.
"I opened the door and there was like no smoke and a minute later there was a hallway full of smoke. We couldn't get out, we couldn't see nothing," one resident of the building told CBS2. "The firefighters finally came up and they told us to stay in the living room because that's where the fire escape is at and all the windows were open."
Viv Colquhoun owned the hardware store that burned down for over 25 years.
"It's a disaster in there just going inside and look," he said. "I'm just so disturbed."
Colquhoun is concerned that a persistent plumbing problem, with water leaking onto electrical wires, may have cost him his livelihood.
"I always have a bucket or something literally sitting over my head," he said, adding that he told the landlord about it "numerous times."
A representative for Noam Management Group, which runs the building, said they are waiting for the FDNY's findings and can't remember any problems.
"It could be he came to us with plumbing issues, but I'm not sure that's the cause of the fire," Saul said.
The Department of Buildings placed a "stop work order" on this property in June 2015 for work being done without a permit.
The FDNY is still investigating the cause of the fire.
Those injured in the fire are expected to be OK.
The Red Cross is helping 12 households -- 39 adults and 17 children -- who were displaced by the fire.
