4 weekend fires leave 2 dead, more than 300 people homeless
More than 300 people are without homes after four fires tore through The Bronx over the weekend.
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Victims in Eastchester returned to their homes Monday to retrieve belongings they left behind while fleeing flames.
Despite the devastation, residents say they are leaning on one another to get through the crisis.
“Unity within the tragedy,” is how Roger Nunez describes how his family and neighbors are coping while living in a motel.
A full vacate order remains posted outside his building on Bivona Avenue following the fatal fire.
Nunez returned briefly Monday to pack a backpack with essential items.
“Medicine for my mom, and I had to drop off some clothes for my sisters,” Nunez said.
The family has been split up. His school-age sisters are staying with a neighbor while Nunez focuses on caring for his mother, who was forced to leave the apartment they had called home for more than 20 years.
Officials say a gas explosion tore through the upper floors of the 18-story apartment building just after midnight Saturday.
“We heard two booms, back to back — boom, boom — and I’m like, ‘Holy crap,’” Nunez said.
That fire was followed by three others across the borough. On Grand Avenue in University Heights, one woman was killed.
Fire officials say response efforts there were slowed down due to confusion over the address provided to dispatchers.
In another building, burned paint and charred walls remain as city housing inspectors investigate an electrical fire.
A partial vacate order has displaced 23 residents, leaving them without permanent shelter as winter approaches.
“You can’t take anything for granted,” Nunez said. “Things like this can happen so suddenly.”
Nunez said his family will be required to leave the motel by Tuesday and does not know where they will be placed next or when they will be able to return home.
Authorities have not yet released the identities of the two people who died in the fires.
