(Williamsburg-WABC, October 5, 2003) -- Fires tear through buildings in Brooklyn, just as Jewish families who live there prepared to celebrate Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. It happened on Flushing Avenue in Williamsburg.
It is supposed to be a time of friends and families gathering at people's homes, but not in one Orthodox Jewish community where about a dozen families are homeless.
The fire started in a corner building at about 8:45 p.m. on Saturday night. It was vacant, but flames quickly spread to three neighboring residential buildings. Close to 140 firefighters responded to the three-alarm fire, and were able to put it out in just about an hour. But at about 3 a.m. Sunday morning, the fire flared up again. This time in one of the residential buildings. The ceiling on the top floor of one of the buildings caught fire and collapsed. Firefighters are now closely monitoring the unstable buildings.
Bobby Engel, FDNY: "At this point, we are just standing fast with a watch line in case of any rekindle. The last building down...the three-story...is in danger of collapse due to extremely heavy fire condition that was in there and the amount of water that had to be put on it. So we are standing fast until the Chief comes back and checks it out again."
Issac Abraham, Williamsburg Resident: "Normally, we would be getting ready for tonight...and the preparations take more than a week to do this...now the preparations is forget about the atonement, the fast. It is basically just helping families and the children to have a comfortable place to be in and a roof over their heads for the holiday."
Some of those families had been relocated to neighboring synagogues in the area. Luckily, no one living in those three neighboring buildings was hurt, although several firefighters went to the hospital with minor injuries. Arson investigators are on the scene.
