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by LINDSAY FABER
A three-alarm blaze in a Chinatown high-rise took more than two hours to control yesterday morning and injured 28 firefighters and three residents, a Fire Department spokesman said.
The fire broke out at 5:55 a.m. at 20 Confucious Plaza in a 37th-floor apartment in the 44-story building. About 140 firefighters from 33 units battled the blaze, which was under control at 8:10 a.m., the fire spokesman said.
The fire was not immediately considered suspicious. Officials said they believed it had been caused by food that was left smoldering on the stove the night before. No one was home in the apartment at the time the fire broke out.
Still, the fire swelled throughout the entire apartment - reaching temperatures of 1,000 degrees - and stymied firefighters at the front door, fire officials said. They had to use two hoses at the front door that fired more than 500 gallons of water per minute at the fire, and also had to breach the wall of an adjacent apartment to gain access.
"It's not something we normally do, but the front door had buckled and there was fire against it, so we had to go into another apartment," Deputy Assistant Chief Patrick McNally said. "A good amount of heat was leaking into the hallway, and that's how the firefighters got burned. It felt like an oven."
In addition to the 28 firefighters, nine of whom suffered burns, three residents also went to area hospitals. Of the firefighters and residents, none suffered life-threatening injuries; most got burns to their hands and ears and suffered back injuries and fatigue, fire officials said.
"I was scared. I had to walk down 26 flights of stairs with my husband, my baby and my in-laws," said Janice, a resident who smelled smoke at 6:30 a.m. yesterday and woke her family.
"When we got downstairs I saw fire pouring out of the window from an apartment near the courtyard," added Janice, who declined to give her last name. "There was no announcement, though, and no one really knew what to do. I think a lot of people stayed inside."
McNally said it was a good thing the fire went out when it did. All four of the building's elevators suffered water damage, and firefighters had begun walking up the 37 flights of stairs to tackle the blaze.
"That made this operation extremely difficult," he said.
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