At about 4am this morning the bodega downstairs and next door to my sisters apartment on the corner of Greenpoint & Manhattan Aves, had a serious fire. Thankfully, no one was hurt and my sisters place is a-ok sans smelling a little smoky.
It woke her up and she managed to take a bunch of pictures that I should have up later today. She spoke with firemen and people on the scene. The cause of the fire appeared to be bad electrical wiring according to first responders, but nothing official has been said yet.
Right now the place is boarded up including the apartments upstairs. GG mentioned axes being hacked through the place. I feel bad for the renters and just another reason why renters insurance is so necessary.
More on this later – with pictures from the scene last night. Also, if anyone has pictures they want to share, let me know and I will link to them as well.
Update: The Flickr set of the photos my sister took can be found here. And bitch*cakes has these good shots of the inside damage.
Wow, that’s horrible! I’m glad your sister (and everyone else) is OK.
Also glad to hear that your sis is okay! And let me just say… this is horrible! I loved that bodega — the only decent one that was open 24 hours in GP. I can’t even count how many times they sold me vitamin water and parliament lights at 4 am… the owners are in my thoughts!
I wanted to email you yesterday to tell you about this, but didn’t have a chance.
I was in the area around 9am and also took a few pics (they’re on my flickr if you want to use them). I saw one of the guys that works there, and he also said it was an electrical fire and that everyone got out ok. But I was sorry for them, not to mention the renters that were affected above.
Thanks Stella! Ya know, I imagine that bodega will be back up and running in no time. And as my isster said “bigger, better, faster, stronger.” She’s probably right. Still, I feel bad for the guys and I don’t know where I’m gonna get beer at 3am on a Sunday now… 😉
Hey Bitch*Cakes! I went in and took a peek at your pics – real good close up on one, I will update my post to link to ’em.