A fire at a Buddhist temple in New York City has left two people dead, including a Buddhist monk. The fire damaged the small temple, located inside a white, two-story townhouse and a residence for monks in a home situated next door.
FDNY Chief of Department, John Esposito commented: “We had a fire throughout two buildings and unfortunately, we did have two fatalities”.
An NYPD spokerperson shared that the families of the victims are still being notified.
Temple Treasurer Mayuree Sriphirom spoke to TV station WABC, saying: “It’s a disaster right now- the temple, but I was so shocked but I will try the best, all the Thai community will come to help, all around the world- whatever they can help”.
In a post shared to platform X by fire officials, it was revealed that the blaze was accidental, starting when a space heater was left on too close to combustible materials.
Pam Subhanthad, the temple Community Support Worker said: “The clothes that were close to the space heater caught fire and one of the monks was already downstairs praying. So, he heard the man whose space heater was caught on fire come out, telling everyone that there was a fire. The monk who was praying started waking up everybody”.
New York City fire officials say the fire quickly consumed the temple. In a video of the temple consumed by flames in the predawn blaze, fire officials can be heard ordering firefighters to back out as they believed the building was already too far gone to save.
John Esposito, FDNY Chief of Department also shared that illegally parked cars slowed their response: “We did unfortunately have a car parked on the closest fire hydrant. We’ve seen that now a couple of times in the last week throughout the city. We all know that we should not be parking on fire hydrants and when you park on fire hydrants, it slows us down. When we’re fighting a fire, seconds count”
A fire in a Buddhist temple located in New York has fatally wounded two people. The blaze was caused by a space heater.
A Treasurer for the temple referred to the incident as a disaster, saying that the fire was a shock but the the Thai community will join together to help.
