A raging five-alarm fire gutted a Bronx grocery store and left four people injured on Thursday night, officials said.
The blaze broke out around 5:30 p.m. inside C-Town Supermarket on University Avenue in Morris Heights, according to the FDNY. Footage from the scene showed flames soaring through the roof of the now-destroyed building.
One person and three firefighters suffered minor injuries, the department said. More than 200 firefighters and EMTS responded to the blaze that was extinguished before midnight.
“There is obviously a loss of property in the community tonight, but thanks to the hard work of our members, no loss of life this evening,” Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said from the scene.
A store employee told NBC 4 he saw smoking coming from the top of the building while the business was bustling with shoppers before everyone fled.
Responding firefighters were able to enter the burning building, but quickly retreated back outside “due to the heavy volume of fire,” Chief of Department John Hodgens said.
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“We quickly put tower ladders in operation and had hand lines in all of the exposed buildings,” said Hodgens.
A witness who lives near the fire said the flames were near other businesses, including a gas station.
But the smoke-eaters were able to contain the fire to just the supermarket, Hodgens said.
Bronx resident Frances Malcolm told The Post neighbors in her apartment building at 1715 Nelson Ave. evacuated as a precaution because of their proximity to the fire. She said she returned to her home a few hours after the fire began, along with most of her neighbors.
“My building, the people on the back, which is closer to C-Town where the fire started, they got smoke damage,” Malcolm, 69, said.
She said she was actually on her way to the supermarket but quickly turned around.
“I asked this gentleman, I said, ‘Sir, what’s going on,’” Malcolm said. “He said ‘I think C-Town’s on fire.”
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