NY Times Photo: 2 Killed as Early-Morning Blaze Rips Through Chinatown Tenement

From NY Times:

Families from 22 James Street and nearby buildings had to be moved to a temporary shelter at a nearby community center.

Red Cross assisting 60 families in Chinatown fires

Video News Reports:  CBS, ABC

From the NY Daily News:

Survivors of the apartment fire are helped by a memeber of the NYPD.

More than 60 families from three buildings on the block were taken to a nearby shelter. The Red Cross was trying to find Mandarin interpreters since many of the displaced residents spoke only Chinese, officials said.

From NY Newsday:

Sixty families, totaling nearly 250 people, were evacuated and took shelter at Hamilton-Madison House, a nearby charity, said Rosemary Mackey, a Red Cross spokeswoman.

One neighbor, a third-floor resident of a building adjacent to 22 James St., said she looked out the window of her apartment and saw a man in the burning building.

“The guy was breaking the window and calling for help,” said the woman, who gave only her last name, Xian. “He looked like he was about to jump.”

Xian said that when her 24 James St. building was evacuated because of the fire she got dressed and left with her 9-month-old baby and 3-year-old child. She took refuge at Hamilton-Madison House where residents of 22, 24 and 47 St. James St. were being helped by the Red Cross.

Red Cross assisting displaced residents of Woodhaven Fires

NY 1 Video: Chapter Partners with St. John University

The American Red Cross has teamed up with St. John’s University’s Staten Island Campus to make sure the Island is better prepared for a disaster.

Chapter Assists Hundreds of New Yorkers over the Weekend

January 30 through February 1 might have been Super Bowl weekend for most people, but for the American Red Cross in Greater New York (ARC/GNY) it was an unusually busy three days of disaster response. Between Friday morning and Sunday evening, the Chapter responded to 31 incidents, the majority of them house fires. Chapter relief workers provided beverages and snacks for more than 500 residents, firefighters and police, as well as for repair crews restoring services. They also registered 122 adults and 55 children for Red Cross assistance.

 

A brief rundown of the weekend’s major responses:

 

Friday, January 30

When a 3-alarm fire broke out at 4:46 a.m. at 815 Gerard Avenue, a six-story apartment building in the Bronx, ARC/GNY was on the scene within 30 minutes. Thus began a response that didn’t end until after midnight. Over the course of the day, 13 ARC/GNY relief workers—9 employees and 3 volunteers, including one mental health worker and one disaster health service worker—assisted 39 people (33 adults and 6 children) who registered for Red Cross relief.       

 

By day’s end the Chapter had distributed hot meals, beverages and snacks to 350 people including building residents, first responders and Con Ed and other workers, provided emergency housing for two adults and arranged for an  MTA bus to be brought to Gerard Avenue to give displaced residents a warm, dry place to wait. The Chapter also handed out 140 blankets and 24 sweat suits to those who had evacuated the building without adequate clothing for the mid-winter temperature.

 

ARC/GNY responders were supported by five disaster response vehicles. Additionally, 24 employees at the Chapter’s Manhattan Headquarters provided technical support and guidance, and arranged for additional supplies, equipment and meals as needed. The Chapter also placed a shelter management team of 29 volunteers and 1 employee on standby, and prepared to deploy a shelter support truck with cots and blankets to open a shelter if electricity, gas and water were not restored to the building that night.

 

While the Chapter was aiding residents and responders at Gerard Avenue, a second 3-alarm fire blaze broke out a little after 6:30 p.m. at 207-24 Jordan Drive in Queens. ARC/GNY immediately sent an Emergency Response Vehicle to the site. Although Chapter responders were unable to gain access to the affected apartments in order to conduct damage assessments, they registered four people for Red Cross assistance.  

 

Saturday, January 31

Six ARC/GNY relief workers arrived at 52-12 103^rd Street in Queens just minutes after a two-alarm blaze began at 9:14 p.m. The Chapter assisted 34 people (20 adults and 14 children), providing temporary housing at a local hotel for 30 people, arranging MTA MetroCards for those lacking transportation to alternative accommodations, and helping secure replacement medicines for a resident who’d lost hers in the fire.  

 

 

Sunday, February 1

At 9:18 a.m., a 3-alarm fire swept through 138 Division Avenue in Brooklyn. Three ARC/GNY workers responded and provided beverages and snacks for 3 residents and 30 firefighters. None of those affected needed Red Cross-arranged housing.

 

At 6:10 p.m. the Chapter arrived at the scene of an unstable building being vacated at 8 E. 110^th Street in Manhattan. ARC/GNY responders provided snacks, drinks and blankets to several dozen residents forced out of the building. They also researched hotel accommodations in case the building was declared unsafe for occupation. At approximately 9:00 p.m. inspectors declared the building habitable and allowed tenants to return. All told, the Chapter aided 100 people during the three-hour incident.

 

 

The Office highlights what *NOT* to do during an emergency

Learn how to plan and prepare for an emergency.

Take a CPR and First Aid class.

NY Post: Bronx Fire Heartache

From the NY Post:

Fire ripped through two wood-frame buildings in The Bronx yesterday, leaving several families without a home – including a woman who had gone to Washington to attend the inauguration of President Obama.

Daniel Festa, of the Red Cross disaster-response team, said the agency was taking six families to hotels last night.

Video: First person accounts from Passengers of Flight 1549

Passengers’ accounts from the crash scene

From Newsday.com:

The district manager for a women’s clothing company was in seat 13A. She escaped to a wing, losing her shoes, then called her husband.

“I said, ‘Oh, my God, I’m in the river,'” she said, standing in the US Airways terminal at LaGuardia last night in socks, pajama bottoms – her jeans were soaked – and wrapped in a Red Cross blanket.

Passenger Bill Elkin spoke about his ordeal as he walked into the Crowne Plaza hotel near LaGuardia, a Red Cross blanket draped around his shoulders.

“I was thinking: This can’t be it. This can’t be the end. It’s just like, if you’ve ever been in a car wreck, it seemed to take so long, but it happened really fast.

Read the complete story here.

Red Cross working with City Agencies and other Groups to help Passengers of Flight 1459

From Disaster News Network:

Maryann Darlak of the American Red Cross in Greater New York said her organization sent out 700 blankets to make sure those rescued from the crash were able to get a little warmth in the immediate aftermath of the rescue from the 41 degree water. With the air temperature at about 20 degrees, the damp crash victims had to be kept as warm as possible.

“Of course, that’s only the first step,” she said. “We’re now working with the New York City Police and Fire departments, the OEM (Office of Emergency Management) and the Coast Guard who are right there on the scene to see what needs to be done next.”

She said other relief organizations are waiting for the Red Cross to put out the word and that they will move in where they are most needed.

Judy Bezon, assistant director for Children’s Disaster Services of Brethren Disaster Ministries, said her response teams are ready to go at a moment’s notice.  If the Brethren Disaster team gets a call from the Red Cross in New York City, she said, they are already packed and ready to go.

“We are ready to head out as soon as the Red Cross puts out the call,” she said. “We are monitoring the situation through the Red Cross and the media. We are aware of the situation and ready to go.”