Residents living near the businesses thanked the firefighters for saving their homes, and said the blaze was reminiscent of a five-alarm inferno that engulfed a row of stores on Queens Boulevard in 2018, destroying longtime favorites like New York Eats and Sidetracks. My office is reaching out to those impacted and stands ready to support the recovery in this area.”

NYS Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris issued the following statement: “I was deeply saddened to hear the news of another fire in Sunnyside impacting small businesses. “And of course, we will do all we can to help the affected small businesses and those whose jobs are impacted.” “We are grateful for the FDNY response,” City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer tweeted. Lawmakers and area residents praised the efforts of firefighters who battled through the extreme heat to bring the fire under control in less than two hours, despite the extreme hot weather. We had three non-life-threatening firefighter injuries and no civilian injuries resulting from this fire.” “We provide relief to our members faster than we normally do to keep them safe. “Whenever there are fires in severe heat conditions that are weather-related, it’s always a challenge for us,” Hodgens said.

“The fire was upgraded to four alarms just before 9 a.m.” Multiple EMS and rescue units responded to the scene to assist firefighters who were battling the blaze in 98-degree temperatures, in the middle of the city’s third extended heat wave this summer. More than 200 firefighters responded to the scene, FDNY Chief of Operations John Hodgens said. “It then jumped to three other businesses along Queens Boulevard, including Mad Café, the Mad for Chicken restaurant and Bejeko Sekuna, a Nepalese restaurant,” FDNY officials said. The fire started at about 7:25 a.m., at the Japanese market, “Taiyo Foods,” on 44th Street, and spread to the neighboring Yeserith Esthetics, fire officials said. A four-alarm blaze that tore through five stores in Sunnyside on August 12th destroyed the businesses and sent three firefighters to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, fire officials said.

Mad for chicken fire