A Bravest was hit in the head by a window air conditioner when it fell during a Queens blaze early Tuesday, leaving him with “significant pain,’’ authorities said.
The raging five-alarm fire erupted around 3:25 a.m. on the first floor of the three-story home on Madison Street near Onderdonk Avenue in Ridgewood and intensified over the next hour, also leaving about 30 families homeless, officials said.
“We eventually had fire on all floors in the fire building,” FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito told reporters. “The roof has collapsed into the top floor and extended to the buildings next door. We vacated four of the buildings behind us.”
Five firefighters were hurt during the response, three of whom were treated on the scene with minor injuries, the FDNY said.
The other two smoke-eaters were hospitalized for their injuries, including the one struck by the falling AC unit, Esposito said.
“We did have several minor injuries to firefighters, including one firefighter that was struck in the head with an air conditioner that fell out the window,” the chief said. “He’s been transported to the hospital conscious and alert but in significant pain.”
A civilian was also hospitalized with a minor injury, officials said.
At the height of the blaze, 84 units – including 270 fire and EMS personnel – were on the scene, the department said.
Nearly 30 families were displaced as a result of the fire and were taken to an “immediate response center” at nearby P.S. 239, according to Zachary Iscol, commissioner of the city’s office of Emergency Management.
Those left homeless included resident Noemi Bargas, a resident for nearly 30 years who was on Long Island spending the holidays with her daughter when she watched TV coverage of the destructive blaze and realized it involved her home.
“I was still hoping, ‘It’s not going to spread,’ ” Bargas said. “But look, everything is gone. I’ve been here for so many, many years.”
But Bargas said she was still grateful no lives were lost in the blaze.
“God is good,” she said. “This is material things that can be replaced. Not the memories, not the place. But I trust God.”
Landlord Eduard Skiber said the inferno sounded like the “roof upstairs was breaking apart” and destroyed everything he ever knew.
“I’ve been living here since 1959,” Skiber said. “I was born in 1958. I was here my whole life.
“That’s all I got,” he added. “That’s it. I don’t drive a car. I’m all by myself. My parents passed away a long time ago, my sister passed away three years ago.”
The blaze marked the city’s second five-alarm fire in as many days – with the first erupting early Monday in a Bronx deli and spreading to the apartments upstairs.
Newly minted Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who responded to both scenes, told reporters that “two five-alarm fires without a loss of life is a testament and a credit to the incredible work of the first responders that we have here in this city.
“Some of the same firefighters that are here today were in The Bronx yesterday, and we are asking the world of them, and we are so thankful that they are able to keep people safe in the city,” the mayor said.
