An early morning fire was reported at The Belnord, located at 225 West 86th Street.
Several videos were shared on Citizen App between approximately 5:00am and 5:45am.
One video shows smoke emanating from the roof, and the FDNY later reported that the fire had come from a penthouse apartment.
Fire at The Belnord Apartments @CitizenApp
225 W 86th St 5:01:02 AM EDT
Another video shows emergency vehicles lining 86th Street and wrapping around Broadway.
Fire at The Belnord Apartments @CitizenApp
225 W 86th St 5:01:02 AM EDT
The building, famous for its rental-to-condo conversion and Robert A.M Stern redesign — has recently become more famous for its role as The Arconia in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building
The fire was reported under control at 5:47am. We’ve reached out to the FDNY for more details and will provide an update once we know more.
The whole city is ready to go up in flames.
Buildings that were rentals, especially. Why?
Because as the older buildings are bought by speculators/investors and transitioned into “owned Condos” from rental units, there is a lot of interest in upgrading the original/existing electric and heat/ac to contemporary codes by both the new owners and the building.
The apartments remaining in the rental pool are not upgraded and we all know that today’s electricity demands are a LOT higher than they were in 1920.
The ancient, almost always ungrounded receptacles are often still using knob and tube cloth covered wires that are now ancient, burned, stiff and brittle. Because code didn’t require grounded plugs with GFI (around water) and a pair of them every 6 feet, rental tenants must use 4 to 1, 6 to 1 or 10 to 1 plug adapters to plug in all the gear a modern person uses, demanding LOTS more Wattage out of the old receptacles. We’ve all seen those in older apartments in NYC.
The overloaded wires inside the walls are no longer running cool- they are running at near bursting into flame temps. Plus, these old plugs aren’t even grounded. Try dropping your toaster oven into your sink full of water or your hair dryer into your bath tub.
That’ll light you right up-
Hasta La Vista, baby!
Seems to me, rather than wasting so much time putting up scaffolding everywhere because we fear 1 person might have a brick drop on their head once every 7 years, NYC ought to get behind mandating electrical upgrades city wide.
Waddy think?
Or someone burned some toast. You be the judge…