In New York, I’m Bo Hamby.
More than a dozen people were taken to local hospitals in Queens this morning when two separate fires broke out. One at an apartment building in Jackson Heights and the other at a two-story home in Elmhurst.
According to the Fire Department, more than one hundred firefighters responded to the home in Elmhurst, when flames erupted just after 5 a-m. At a press conference earlier today, Chief Mark Ferran said eleven people were seriously injured. That includes seven firefighters, who were on a staircase climbing to the attic when it collapsed.
In Jackson Heights, four people were injured, including two young girls who are being treated for smoke inhalation. An eyewitness told New York One that a 12-year-old boy had to jump from a window.
CUT: Everybody started coming through the window to look what happened and they were telling the kids to throw themselves through the window.
The cause of both fires remain under investigation. They came just hours after another blaze at a building in the Bronx on Thursday night. At the press conference, Chief Ferran said 20 firefighters were injured in the last twenty-four hours.
The Fire Department was also busy in Tribeca this morning. Two window washers got stuck outside the 40th floor of a skyscraper when their platform crashed into the building and stopped working. Firefighters and the NYPD rescued the pair by pulling them through the building’s windows.
And at One Police Plaza, the NY-PD refused to reinstate a police sergeant who was at the scene of Eric Garner’s death in 2016. According to the New York Post, Sergeant Kizzy Adonis was told that she would be reassigned to a new precinct today and taken off desk-duty. Adonis showed up at police headquarters this morning to pick up her service weapon, but her full-duty sergeant’s I-D was taken away instead. She remains on desk duty.
The Brooklyn D-A’s office says the president of the Borough Park Shomrim is scheduled to appear before the Brooklyn Supreme Court today. Jacob Daskal was arrested yesterday on charges that he repeatedly raped a 16-year-old girl inside his Brooklyn home.
Daskal is the leader of the Shomrim safety patrol — a neighborhood watch group made up of of volunteer Orthodox Jewish civilian patrols.
Transit looks ok right now, but this weekend could be a mess. There’s planned work on most lines, so check the MTA’s website for details before heading out.
It’s currently 71 degrees in Central Park. And it looks like today’s sun will not continue into the weekend. Rain is expected on Saturday and Sunday, but that won’t stop Bronx Week 2018 from continuing on. The neighborhood celebration includes the Bronx Ball, which will take place tomorrow. That’s followed on Sunday by a parade, food & arts festival and a concert.
Bo Hamby, Columbia Radio News.
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