A large fire broke out in a Baldwin apartment building, leaving dozens of families with nowhere to go, officials said.
The blaze began on the third floor of the building around 11:30 a.m. on June 26 and quickly escalated to a five-alarm fire requiring the highest level of emergency response, according to the Baldwin Fire Department. Firetrucks from at least 10 departments were at the scene. It took firefighters around two hours to extinguish the flames.
“The whole building is compromised with water damage and fire,” Baldwin Fire Chief Douglas Eberhart told the Press. “[The blaze] expanded to half of the top floor, I would say. Maybe even a little more.”
Some people were carried into ambulances on gurneys, but injuries were minor and were mostly from fatigue, Eberhart said. There were no fatalities.
Countless firetrucks, ambulances and police cars surrounded the apartment at 700 Merrick Road, shutting down the street from Grand Avenue to Lancaster Avenue. Lining the side of the road were dozens of individuals and families who could do nothing but watch as their homes went up in flames.
“We didn’t have a chance to grab anything,” Susana Canela told the Press. She pointed out the charred window of her third-floor home. “I lost it all.”
“I’m heartbroken,” she said. “I have three kids. Everything is gone.”
That morning, Canela’s partner had walked into the hallway after they noticed an “awful smell.”
“There was smoke coming out of [my neighbor’s] apartment, and they told me that they were working on the electrical boxes and that they had everything under control,” he said. “When our alarms kept going off, that’s when I said, ‘Wait, something is wrong.'”
Their children — a 16-year-old, a 6-year-old and a 4-month-old — were sleeping when the alarm went off.
“I was having a dream,” Canela’s 6-year-old son said. “I thought it was just a dream.”
They stood with other families — many also with small children — across the apartment building for more than two hours and had yet to find out if anything survived the blaze.
“[I feel] destroyed,” Canela’s 16-year-old daughter said. “My entire life was there.”
