On Thursday morning, emergency teams responded to a carbon monoxide leak in a Bronx apartment building, resulting in the evacuation and subsequent hospitalization of over a dozen residents.
The FDNY reported that the incident occurred at Twin Park South East, located at Mapes Avenue and 180th Street on October 12th, in East Tremont, which is only a mile away from Twin Parks North West, the site of a tragic fire in 2022 that claimed 17 lives.
The 13 affected residents treated at Jacobi Hospital all reportedly suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were stabilized by healthcare professionals.
A resident of the fourth floor, Natalie Myers, 54, described her narrow escape saying, “Luckily I had my windows open already, so I wasn’t physically affected.”
Myers, who was warned to evacuate by a neighbor, revealed that alarms were activated on certain upper floors, indicating elevated concentrations of the perilous gas.
She recounted, “When I was in the elevator, the firefighter was physically carrying an elderly woman … and he had an oxygen thing over her mouth because, obviously, she was directly affected.”
Local authorities cordoned off the surrounding streets, filling them with fire department vehicles, ambulances, and police to manage the situation and assist affected residents.
Despite the alarm, some residents expressed that the carbon monoxide scare didn’t come as a complete shock, citing a gradual decline in the building’s security and pest control measures over the past few years.
Residents acknowledged that the building had recently received a series of structural repairs. However, the incident has left them without water, and they await communication from the building management concerning the restoration of amenities and subsequent actions.
The building, purchased by Bronx Park Phase I Preservation LLC, a consortium including Camber Property Group, in 2019, finds its reputation further scrutinized amidst ongoing investigations into the precise origin of the leak, suspected to be the boiler room.
A resident, Lanessa Leggett, said, “We had no heat all week and then, finally, we get heat last night and then this happened this morning.”
The FDNY and Department of Buildings have stated that the incident is still under investigation.
