Mom-and-pop stores are the main casualty of a huge blaze that overtook a block in Queens Saturday morning. It took 168 firemen to calm the four-alarm fire, which was under control by 1:30 pm. Meanwhile 54 apartments were evacuated in a nearby building. The fire got going at Acme Furniture in Jackson Heights around 10 am, reports NY1; people as far away as Long Island City could see the billowing smoke. It quickly spread down a row of shops on 37th Street to a dry cleaner, a shore repair shop, a liquor store, an art supply store, a packaging store and a purveyor of beauty supplies. "You have a lot of that wood furniture, finishings on the furniture. As it extended to the other stores, other materials got involved and let the fire escalate quickly," said New York Fire Department Deputy Assistant Chief Robert Maynes.
Miraculously, no one was seriously hurt, through four firefighters received minor injuries. Residents were evacuated from nearby apartments, but in the end the fire didn’t spread to their building. In the past few weeks a string of fires in residential buildings have left many dead and injured.
As for the store owners, they aren’t optimistic about their losses. "I don't know what the hell is going on. I know I'm not in business anymore, that's for sure," said Thomas Kourakos, the owner of the shoe repair store. WABC reports that the block's commercial row has been in business for decades. It’s unclear when the stores will reopen. See pictures of the fire here.
