Residents Believe Faulty Wiring May Have Sparked 3-Alarm Fire In Flatbush

FLATBUSH – A three-alarm fire broke out at 60 Clarkson Avenue (between Flatbush & Bedford Avenues) shortly after 4pm Thursday afternoon. Residents say they believe it was due to faulty electrical wiring in a recently remodeled apartment.

“It’s kind of mind-boggling that there was an electrical fire in one of the apartments they were remodeling,” Brian Nicholas said.

Nicholas rushed over to the building after his mother, a resident of 60 Clarkson, called him with news of the fire.

Charlene Fisher, a resident of the building, believes the fire may have started in her top-floor apartment. When the electricity stopped working in her bedroom, she called the superintendent. It was sometime around then that she began smelling smoke.

“I smelled the smoke. It smelled like plastic smoke,” she said.

According to her, the super alerted the fire department and moments later they were breaking through her roof with pike poles. She and other residents were safely evacuated from the six-story building and stood on the street to stare up at the ladders stretching to their roof and windows from the fire trucks below. While clutching their pets and children, many residents worried about their belongings still inside.

“I feel hurt because they were breaking in my roof,” she said. “I don’t have nothing on me. No personal documents, nothing.”

Neighbors also looked on as firefighters swarmed the block. Many expressed their relief that nobody was seriously injured and then wondered aloud what they’d do if fire struck them.

“If there was a fire at my house I’d be in trouble,” Greta Niles, a nearby resident said. “If it was myself, I’d think, ‘What the heck am I going to do?'”

Others expressed disgust for what they believed to be negligent wiring inspections in the building.

“The facts are, the city needs to be on point – and stop pretending they’re on point – with renting these places out without making sure that, at least, electricity is [the] number one check priority,” Denise Williams, a long-time resident of a neighboring building, said.

All were amazed at the outpouring of response from the fire department.

“We’ve never had this many fire trucks on Clarkson,” Williams said. “The fire department is doing a heck of a job.”

The FDNY had the fire under control by approximately 5:50pm. Two patients were taken to Kings County Hospital for minor injuries, a FDNY spokesperson said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.