Fire at three-story Highbridge building leaves six injured

Firefighters battle a three alarm fire at 920 Sumitt Ave. on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024.

Photo Lloyd Mitchell

Six people were left injured after a three-alarm fire in the Bronx’s Highbridge section just before 7 p.m. on Jan. 2.

FDNY personnel battled an intense blaze at 920 Summit Ave. that resulted in two residents with minor injuries and four firefighters with minor injuries. Paramedics transported the six to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln.

FDNY personnel arrived to the scene in Highbridge and found a heavy fire throughout a three-story, wood frame dwelling. Due to the intense battle, fire units were briefly withdrawn from the building and a tower ladder was put into operation to knock down the main body of blaze. A short time later, 138 firefighters from 33 units re-entered the building and used four hose lines to extinguish the rest of the blaze.

A building resident next door who did not provide their name said they could see the blaze from their window.

“My window faced where the fire was coming from it, I couldn’t breathe for a little bit so then I decided to get out,” the tenant said.

Carlos Lopez, another resident of the building on Summit Avenue, described the brilliance of the flames.

“The smoke filled the sky and the flames were bright orange,” Lopez said. “I was hoping it wouldn’t extend to our building. The firefighters did a great job.”

The blaze was marked under control at 8:40 p.m. FDNY Fire Marshals still hadn’t determined the origin or cause of the fire by Jan. 3.

Blazes in that area of the West Bronx, along Summit Avenue in particular, have been notoriously difficult to manage because of the major traffic issues the FDNY has reported.

Back in March of last year, a double fire (started, put out, then started and put out again) at 913 Summit Ave. — which lies on the same block as the Jan. 2 blaze — took firefighters more than an hour to extinguish the first time, largely because they couldn’t get…