On Christmas Day, a house on 147th Street in Flushing, Queens, was largely destroyed by a blaze that began in a trash can in the alleyway and leapt up the siding.
The FDNY dispatched a three‑alarm response around 3:15 p.m. Thursday. Within four minutes, 192 firefighters and EMS teams arrived at the scene. Although the right side of the home was consumed by fire, the residents were able to leave safely.
Multiple windows were blown out and a roof‑mounted cushion lay flattened on the roof. By the time the fire was extinguished at about 4:30 p.m., the charred portion of the house was unrecognizable, and some deck boards had shriveled from the heat.
Christmas lights on the front of the property, however, remained intact, while a deflated lawn Santa and a reindeer lay limp on the grass.
FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Joseph Schiralli explained that the inferno “started in a trash can in the alleyway and went up the siding” before taking the house.
A witness, Farhan, recounted seeing many members of the family, described as “screaming,” rush out of the burning house, including a sick man who “couldn’t move” very well. “Everyone was saved,” Farhan added.
“They were crying a lot, the girls especially.” He also noted that the residents of a neighboring house fled once the fire spread and that “there was a lot of smoke.”
The owner of a nearby house that sustained only minor damage said that luck and wind direction were critical. “It’s all about which way the wind is blowing,” they told The Post. “I feel sorry for that family, though. Unbelievable that this should happen to them on Christmas.”
Later that afternoon, a separate two‑alarm fire struck a Chinese restaurant on Sutter Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, around 3:30 p.m. The owner told News 12 Brooklyn that he and his staff were on a lunch break when they heard “a big boom.” All employees escaped unharmed, and no customers were present.
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