The Bronx high-rise where 17 people died in a massive blaze Sunday was also the site of a smoky 1986 fire that exposed several building challenges for firefighters and serious safety lapses by Bravest at the time.
The compactor fire at 331 E. 181st St. on March 2, 1986, was initially handled “routinely” as a report of a smoke condition, according to an article in WNYF magazine, the department’s training publication, later that year.
But as the situation evolved, heavy smoke engulfed the 19-story building’s upper floors, prompting some tenants to dangle from windows and firefighters running for refuge.
“The building, familiar to these firefighters, is thought of as a typical housing project where the report of smoke on one floor or another is handled routine using the department’s standard operating procedures,” the report said.
“However, if firefighting, nothing is routine and on this day, once again, ‘Murphy’s Law’ reared its ugly head,” the article said.
Interior photos obtained by The Post show the aftermath of a fatal multi-alarm fire in the Bronx on Sunday. NY Post
Trash buildup in the compactor sparked a similar fire in the building in 1986. FDNY
Among the challenges firefighters faced were limited access to duplex apartments on six floors — with doors on only one of the two floors the units occupied.
That includes the second- and third-floor duplex where Sunday’s fire started.
The article also noted that “the interior halls are windowless and have no access to the exterior,” with the spaces “mechanically vented by a small air shaft” near compactor closets with doors that open outward.
The building’s safety features, WNYF said, “should have provided protection against fire but instead played a major role in its spread.”
Firefighters even found that a ground-floor door to the compactor had been blocked.
Then-Deputy Assistant Chief Feehan and Deputy Chief Murtagh confer in the 12th floor hallway where the most sever fiore damage occurred in 1986. FDNY
“In the lobby, the chauffer of Ladder 56, hearing via radio transmission that it was a compactor fire, attempted to gain access to the compactor room from the lobby but was unable to do so,” the article said. “It was later found to be locked from the inside and fortified by a 2″x8″ plank acting as a wedge.”
Firefighters, initially believing the smoke was coming from the 15th floor, took an elevator to the 13th floor, only to be forced back by heat and heavy smoke.
Backup units later reported that the top six floors of the high-rise were overwhelmed by smoke — with some tenants breaking windows and so panicked that firefighters had to use a PA on a police car to convince them not to jump, the article said.
“The occupants of one 18th floor apartment broke out a window, showering glass on firefighters and spectators in the street,” the report said. “They then climbed out on the window sill threatening to jump.”
“One woman held a young child precariously at another window, while numerous other occupants appeared and disappeared at windows on the top seven floors.”
A similar fire occurred March 2, 1986 in the same building. FDNY
Some spectators on the street were yelling for tenants to jump.
Another woman with a 6-month-old baby ignored FDNY instructions to stay in her apartment and tried to flee her 19th-floor home — only to be overwhelmed by smoke in the stairwell, the article said.
Confused, she tried to return to her apartment but got off on the 18th floor by mistake, where “she sat down on the hall floor to die.”
Instead, nearby tenants heard the baby crying and made their way blindly through the smoke to bring the mother and child to safety in their apartment.
Fire officials later determined that rubbish accumulated in the compactor room on the third floor and between the 12th and 13th floor caused the blaze.
While no one was seriously hurt in the fire, the flames and smoke caused heavy damage in parts of the building and elevator doors on the upper floors.
An image originally published in WNYF illustrates the before and after of the hopper door in the Bronx building in 1986. FDNYIn the aftermath of the fire, authorities also noted a breakdown in communication between fire companies in the building — citing the importance of keeping tenants calm.
“Exterior size-up of high rise building fires is not necessarily indicative of conditions on the interior of the building, particularly the fire floor and floors above,” the training article concluded. “Members should not be misled by reported conditions and the actions of people at the scene.”
Nearly 36 years later, the building was hit with Sunday’s deadlier fire, which officials said was sparked by a space heater in a duplex apartment on the second and third floors.
The Fire Department article had the building’s address as 331 E. 181st St. at the time, but the FDNY and city today list the same structure as 333 E. 181st.
