Investigators Sunday were still trying to determine the cause of a rampaging fire that ravaged a row of Queens stores on Saturday, officials said.
The four-alarm blaze raged for 3-1/2 hours and consumed 13 Jackson Heights businesses – and still refused to die.
Firefighters extinguished multiple spot fires that rose overnight from the ashes of the burned-out stores, a Fire Department spokesman said. The localized hot spots were probably fed by hot embers buried beneath rubble.
Investigators believe the fire started at Acme Furniture on 37th Ave. and quickly spread to neighboring businesses. The Buildings Department deemed six of the charred structures to be unsafe and ordered them razed, a spokeswoman confirmed.
Tom Kourakos (foto), 83, of Queens, owned Tom’s Shoe Repair on 37th Ave. for 54 years. Now he is left to wonder if his insurance can ever possibly replace what he lost.
“My whole life was there,” he told the Daily News. “What now? That’s a good question. I don’t know. Everything is destroyed. There’s not one item left.”
(source: daily news)
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