Another tenant of the Harlem building that went up in flames — killing a firefighter — while it was being used as a set for an upcoming Edward Norton-Bruce Willis film is suing his landlord and the movie company, saying he’s been living in emergency housing since the 2018 blaze.
Photographer Curu Necos-Bloice claims in his Manhattan civil suit that the on-set inferno, which killed Firefighter Michael Davidson, decimated the rent-stabilized home he’d lived in since 1998, and destroyed his most prized possessions.
Norton is directing and Willis starring in “Motherless Brooklyn” — based on Jonathan Lethem’s 1999 novel — at 773 St. Nicholas Ave. on March 22, when a fire broke out in the basement.
Necos-Boice, who lived in 2R, said he was home around 10:00 p.m. the night of blaze when the lights went out. He says he called landlord Vincent Sollazzo, to no avail.
“When representatives of Defendant Class 5 became aware of the fire, they did not warn the tenants in the building; in fact, they misled the tenants into believing there was no fire,” the suit says. “Plaintiff did not take any belongings from the Apartment as he was misled by the representatives of Defendant Class 5 saying there was no fire. As a result of the fire, plaintiff’s Apartment was completely destroyed.”
Necos-Boice said he’d been preparing for a photo exhibition at the time, and claims in court papers that 2,000 high-resolution digital images were incinerated, and he had to cancel his show.
The only thing he says he was able to save were his late sister’s ashes.
“Plaintiff has not been able to return to live in his Apartment and has been living in city emergency housing without assistance from the landlord,” the court docs read.
Necos-Boice is not the only tenant to have filed a suit against the landlord and film company. Just five days after the blaze, his neighbors on the top floor, Erica and George Cruz, filed their own $5 million lawsuit.
Davidson’s widow, Eileen, filed a wrongful death suit against Sollazzo and Class 5 Inc., in August.
Sollazzo could not be immediately reached. Class 5, Inc did not return a request for comment.
Necos-Boice is seeking unspecified damages.



