NY Times: 5 Are Rescued From a Fire at a Grocery in Queens by Cara BuckleyA contractor was charged with reckless endangerment after firefighters had to rescue five workers who were locked inside a Queens supermarket when a blaze broke out yesterday morning, the authorities said.
After the fire began, the workers, believed to be immigrants hired to do renovation work while the supermarket was closed, took turns banging on the locked metal gates and crying for help while the others sought refuge in the supermarket’s basement until firefighters cut through the gates with chain saws and helped the gasping men out.
A neighbor said the men called out in Spanish, “We’re going to die, we’re going to die, there’s no air!” as thick, inky smoke billowed out from the supermarket, Met Foods, on 101st Avenue and 102nd Street in Ozone Park. “No breathe, no breathe,” another trapped worker cried, according to the neighbor, Brian Plunkett, 27.
One of the workers told investigators that the gates had been locked from the inside and that he had left the key in a coat he could not reach because of the flames. Investigators sifting through the wreckage did not find the key.
Last night, a Fire Department spokesman, Francis X. Gribbon, said that the owner of the supermarket had given the key to Jose Correa, the contractor in charge of the renovation work, and that Mr. Correa had not given it to the workers.
“They were locked in the premises,” Mr. Gribbon said.
Mr. Correa, of JMX Contracting, was arrested on a charge of reckless endangerment, Mr. Gribbon said.
It was not immediately clear why the worker had said he had the key in his coat. Mr. Correa could not be reached for comment yesterday. The workers’ identities were not disclosed.
It appeared that the fire was ignited by a propane torch that the workers were using to loosen glue holding down floor tiles, a Fire Department spokesman said.
The store’s owner, Joseph Doleh, will probably be issued a summons for improper use of the torch, Mr. Gribbon said.
The fire was reported at 3:25 a.m., and firefighters who responded heard the trapped men banging on the corrugated metal gates and then falling silent. After two firefighters sawed through one of the gates, they found the five men huddled in the basement, crying, with blackened shirts pressed over their faces.
“They were distressed, they didn’t have long to go,” said Bradley Walls, a chief with Battalion 51. “There was smoke pouring out of the place. Time was critical for them.”
Sixty firefighters responded, and the blaze was extinguished shortly before 5 a.m. Three of the workers were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, and the other two were taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital. All were treated for smoke inhalation and minor injuries, according to the Fire Department. A dozen firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation and bumps and bruises, a department spokesman said.
Neighbors said that men had been working inside the supermarket at nights for the last three weeks.
When the workers were in there at night, the supermarket’s metal gates were always rolled down, according to another neighbor, Stalin Sanchez, who said he complained repeatedly to the owner about the late-night noise.
A number of supermarkets in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx have been faulted over the last few years for locking workers in without keys.
Immigrant and worker advocates say supermarkets do that at night to prevent outsiders from robbing the store and those working inside from stealing.
Yesterday’s fire left a blackened wasteland inside the Met Foods store. Charred heaps of burned food, scorched glass, melted cleaning supplies and upended shelving were strewn throughout the store.
One neighbor, Samuel Ruiz, 17, said the stench of smoke jolted him awake. “It was crazy. I woke up, I couldn’t breathe. I was choking,” he said.
Mr. Plunkett had heard the trapped men screaming, and he said that outside, the smoke had been so thick that he could not see his hand in front of his face. He said he grabbed a sledgehammer and was about to try to break down the metal gates when the firefighters showed up.
Yesterday afternoon, the supermarket’s clerks loaded bags of salvaged groceries into the car belonging to the supermarket’s owner, Mr. Doleh.
“At least nobody got hurt, that’s the main thing,” Mr. Doleh said. “I don’t know what else to say. The contractor has the key they used to get in and out of the building.”
