Ice Rink Largely Spared after Fire Breaks Out at Bryant Park Holiday Market, 2nd Such Incident This Month
The Dec. 27 blaze completely obliterated three stalls, slightly damaged a fourth one, and temporarily closed the ice rink. The market reopened the next day, on Saturday, Dec. 28. The FDNY says that cooking oil started the blaze. Another blaze wrecked the north end of the Herald Sq. holiday market on Dec. 16, led to a partial four-day shutdown.
Another fire has torn through a Christmas holiday market in Manhattan, this one in Bryant Park on Friday, Dec. 27. The market reopened by the next day.
The FDNY took to social media to document how firefighters encountered and combatted the blaze. “At about 9:23 this morning, [Dec. 27] we received a report of a fire in Bryant Park. Units arrived shortly thereafter and found a fire in the kiosk, approximately six feet by 40 feet long,” their post reads. “We had a couple of separate occupancies inside that area. There was fire in there and throughout. Units then proceeded to stretch hand lines and extinguished the fire in a short amount of time.”
According to the FDNY, three commercial stalls were obliterated, a fourth one was damaged, and the ice rink was temporarily closed after sustaining modest damage. Drivers will also told to expect traffic diversions around the time of the blaze. No firefighters were injured, while they believe the blaze was accidentally started by cooking oil coming into contact with “combustibles.” No foul play is suspected.
Mario Vivas, the owner of Criollas Empanadas–the singed stall that narrowly survived the fire–told NBCNews that he stood to lose $50,000 because he’d have to close his stall for repairs, but that he was grateful the damage wasn’t worse: “This is a miracle actually because we only got destroyed one of our walls and the fire just stopped right next to us.”
The three shops that were completely destroyed will undoubtedly suffer from even more lost revenue. Much of the commercial market closes by Jan. 5, although the ice rink and the park’s “winter wonderland” will remain up until March.
The blaze echoes another one that struck Herald Square on Monday, Dec. 16, which functionally destroyed the northern end of a holiday market located on Broadway and W. 35th St. That fire, which broke out at around 4:05 a.m. and left one firefighter with “serious yet non-life-threatening injuries,” was eventually determined to be caused by electrical issues. A total of eighteen stalls were destroyed, while a hazmat company had to quickly remove propane tanks from the area.
The southern end of the Herald Sq. market, located in front of Macy’s, operated as usual after that fire. Meanwhile, the northern end took four days to reopen. The injured firefighter was treated and released later on the day of the blaze.
Urbanspace Markets, which oversees both the Herald Square and the Bryant Park markets, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.