By Courtney Dentch
A three-alarm fire spewing heavy black smoke swept through a two-story Richmond Hill building housing a textile warehouse and an indoor cricket center late Tuesday afternoon.
The fire was reported just before 4 p.m. at 87-41 130th St. near the border of Richmond Hill and Jamaica, a spokesman for the Fire Department said. It spread to a nearby house, disrupted subway service for nearly two hours, and was brought under control at 6:20 p.m., the spokesman said.
Two firefighters were treated for minor injuries, one of whom was taken to Jamaica Hospital and later released, but no other injuries were reported. Although people were in the building, they were able to evacuate by the time the firefighters arrived.
Fire marshals were investigating the cause of the fire, a spokesman said.
The fire caused heavy damage to the brick building, located between 89th and Jamaica Avenues, and a rear wall collapsed, an FDNY spokesman said. The blaze also spread to the roof, he said.
About 33 units and 138 firefighters were on scene to battle the blaze, a spokesman said.
The building was home to two textile manufacturers on the first floor – Diamond Knits and MJH Knitting Mills Inc. – and Indoor Cricket USA, a sports parlor, on the second floor. The tenants could not be reached for comment.
The embers from the fire ignited the roof of an adjacent house. That fire was quickly extinguished and no injuries were reported at that location, a spokesman for the Fire Department said.
The smoke pouring over the subway tracks of the J subway line, which runs directly alongside the warehouse, was so heavy that service was suspended at the request of the Fire Department between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., said New York City Transit spokeswoman Deirdre Parker.
Trains coming from Manhattan stopped at the 121st Street station in Richmond Hill and then turned around, leaving the tracks empty of subway cars through the end of the line for two hours.
The Long Island Rail Road did not experience any disruptions, a spokesman said.
Across the street from the warehouse, Philip Yu, a manager at Vemars Products Inc., said he smelled something burning and then saw smoke billowing out of the building. As the fire progressed, he said the smoke became so overpowering he and other employees were stuck inside their office.
“We could not open the door because the smoke was so strong,” he said. “The smoke was unbelievable.”
Hedy Koenig, an administrative assistant at Seltech Products, said the smoke from the fire polluted the air in and around her company’s warehouse, which sits more than three blocks from the site of the fire.
“We shut off the heating because it drew all the smoke into the building where we are,” she said. “Eyes were tearing. We smelled the smoke very strong — you could feel it in your lungs.”
– Reporter Dustin Brown contributed to this story.
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 138.
