BPC Man Critically Hurt in Apartment Fire


   A Battery Park City resident was severely injured by a fire in his 30th-floor apartment in the early afternoon of Sept. 24.

Firefighters pulled Alfred K. Rizzolo out of his apartment in the 43-story Tribeca Pointe building, at 41 River Terrace, at about 1:15 p.m. after forcing open his door. He was brought downstairs on a stretcher and was conscious and receiving oxygen when he was placed in an ambulance and sent to the burn center at New York–Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center. Late last month he remained in critical but stable condition, a hospital administrator said.

No other tenants were reported injured, but Rizzolo’s black cat was also rescued. A firefighter rushed the cat, wrapped in a cloth, from the building. The cat was given oxygen on the scene before being sent to Petmenders, a veterinarian on Duane street.

The cat suffered from smoke inhalation but a couple of days later was “doing fine and eating well,” according to an assistant at the veterinary office.

Many residents walked down more than 20 flights of stairs. Some said that they had flashbacks to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack as they left the building.

Jackie Easlick, a 26th-floor tenant, and Victoria Schure, who had recently moved into a 27th-floor apartment, walked down together and sat on a bench with Easlick’s dog, Buda, while firefighters worked in the building.


  “Because of Sept. 11, my husband and I created this emergency backpack,” Easlick said, pointing to a red pack next to her that contained a flashlight, water, dog and human food, a knife, a radio and a few items of clothing.

The fire was discovered after a tenant smelled smoke shortly before 1 p.m. and called the lobby desk. A doorman and the building manager went to the 30th floor, where they saw smoke coming out of Rizzolo’s apartment and called the Fire Department.

Because the fire was in a high-rise, more than 20 Fire Department units, including at least a dozen fire trucks, and 70 firefighters and rescue workers responded.

The fire started in Rizzolo’s kitchen. When firefighters arrived, there was heavy smoke throughout the apartment and smoke in the hallway, Battalion 1 Fire Chief Ron Schmutzler said. The flames were put out by 1:30 p.m. and did not spread to other apartments, but three floors suffered water damage.

Tenants said Rizzolo had worked at the World Financial Center before the terrorist attack and had struggled with emotional problems since then, rarely leaving his apartment.

As of late last month, fire marshals were still investigating the cause of the fire.