Power Cut Again At Beleaguered Bed-Stuy Building After Fire

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A building plagued for weeks by electricity problems is again without power after a fire cut electricity for the whole block on Monday morning, according to tenants and officials.

Six tenants and one firefighter were hospitalized Sunday after fire broke out about 11:30 p.m. in an electrical room at 400 Herkimer St., a building that's been beleaguered with outages since December, according to Tenant Association President Veronica Cromwell and FDNY alerts.

"Everything went out again and smoke started coming up," Cromwell said. "We just had [power] back and then last night the lights start flickering."

Cromwell tried to run from the building but a stairwell filled with smoke forced her back into the apartment and onto the fire escape, where emergency responders told her to wait for a rescue, the tenant leader said.

The fire was put out shortly after and Cromwell was able to go back inside but the blaze forced Consolidated Edison to cut power to more than 240 Herkimer Street homes between Albany and Kingston avenues, the utilities company and Cromwell told Patch.

Power was restored around 11 a.m. to all buildings except 400 Herkimer St., which officials hoped would get limited power back by the end of the day Monday, a Con Ed spokesperson said.

Crews are working on putting in temporary power lines for 400 Herkimer St. that will bring back heat, hot water and electricity to common areas, like elevators and stairwells, according to the spokesperson. Repairs to the electrical system that was damaged in the fire will be required before full power will return, he said.

The fire comes only weeks after another fire in the electrical room at 400 Herkimer that left tenants in the dark for nearly a month during the holidays. Electricity from that fire had been restored on Jan. 15, according to the city.

Tenants have been able to stay in their apartments given limited damage from Sunday's fire, though the blaze left soot in the staircase and a lingering smell of smoke, Cromwell said.

"You can smell the burnt smell when you come in," Cromwell said.

Con Ed told Patch temporary electricity would stay in place while they make repairs to the regular power line. How long repairs would take will depend on the extent of the damage, a spokesperson said.

The fire department and the power company will investigate what caused the fire, and whether it was related to the December fire, according to the spokesperson.

The previous fire at 400 Herkimer St. broke out on Dec. 21 and prompted "extensive" repairs to the building's wiring, officials told Patch at the time.

The outage sent about a quarter of the complex's 150 tenants to hotels or relative's houses while those who remained relied on local nonprofits for meals.

The building's management company, Surad Realty Corporation, faced multiple city violations for the incident, according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

"We are just disgusted about this," Cromwell said. "We just got power back — and now this happened. It's really bad right now."

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development did not immediately respond to Patch's request for more details about the most recent fire and outages.