Because police were not allowing people to cross Sixth Avenue and walk towards the fire scene, I had to walk down Second Street to Fifth Avenue and around  to Third Street to get to 392 Third Street, a 4-story, 8-unit limestone condo, where the fire took place. 

By the time I got near the building, the flames were out but smoke was emanating from the burned-out apartment. The rest of the building was evacuated except I could see that lights and a television set were on in the first floor apartment on the right. There were no lights on in any of the other apartments. 

A ladder from Ladder 122 reached up to the fourth floor apartment on the right; I could see from the sidewalk that firefighters were hard at work inside hosing the apartment down. The pump truck was from Squad 1. 

An EMT worker standing on the north side of Third Street told me that three victims from the building were taken to the hospital. One person had burns and the other two had smoke inhalation. "One was a Code 3," he told a reporter from the NY Daily News who was also trying to get information.

"Do you know which house got the grab?" the reporter asked the EMT. 

"Whoa. You know the lingo. I haven't heard that since the 1970's," he told her. 

None of the firefighters or EMTs, who were standing on the north side of Third Street, knew the cause of the fire. 

"Does anyone know where the Chief is," the Daily News reporter asked. 

"He's over there but he's a little busy right now," the EMT told her. 

A resident of Fourth Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues didn't smell smoke from his home, which is right around the corner, but he heard the sirens and "the sounds of axes and  saws coming from the burning building," he told me. "The smoke smell is much worse up by 6th Avenue," he said. 

The Red Cross was on the scene helping out the displaced residents of the building. Adults and children were evacuated from the other apartments and taken in by people in neighboring buildings,  According to one EMT, none of the other residents of the building suffered injuries, burns or smoke inhalation.

He did, however, offer one bit of advice:

"It's important this time of year that people make sure their smoke detectors are working and especially their carbon monoxide detectors. It's a cheap device but it can save lives," the EMT told me.