New Square, NY – Fire chief: Locked Doors Trapped Yeshiva Students During Blaze

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    fire fighters on the scene Photo: VIN ReaderNew Square, NY – Firefighters had to knock down a locked door in order to evacuate teenage boys from a fire in a yeshiva Thursday after the students living in the dormitory were unable to get out because several exits had been padlocked, said Kim Weppler, chief of the Hillcrest Fire Company.

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    The Washington Avenue fire, which Weppler characterized as “mischievous,” occurred on the second floor of the boys’ dormitory at the Yeshiva Avir Yakov school. It appeared to have started in a garbage can shortly after 2 p.m. and then spread throughout the hallway.

    Read the full story at The Journal News

    Police had to break down the door


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    23 Comments
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    Sheker V'Chuzov
    Sheker V'Chuzov
    13 years ago

    I was there befor the fire department arrived on scene. The dorm where the blaze was, was completely evacuated and the doors wide open. The rest of the building was locked for Yom Tov and nobody was in there and that’s where the fire department broke in! The whole story about boys being trapped is a total lie!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Does anyone learn about the Triangle Shirwaist Factory fire anymore or read newspapers? Locked exits were part of the problem, the same as in the Rhode Island nightclub tragedy a few years ago.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    #4 , WERE is how you spell “were”.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    For the past few months they lock the building down every night with none working fire alarms, while over 70 teens between the age of 16 and 20 sleeping in the dormitory, it’s a tragedy waiting to happen! They are lucky it was in middle of the day during the Passover break. Those responsible for locking the building should be arrested for endangering people’s life.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    To all negative posters. If you would pay attention to the time of the year you would understand it’s Pesach now and all Yeshivas and dorms are closed for Yom Tov which makes poster number 1 right for what he says. Unless you’re not livid then I ain’t help ya.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    You don’t know what you’re talking about. I personally talked to someone who was locked in his room, (Washington side) when the fire was burning on the other side of the dormitory. he told me, “I was in my room, getting myself ready for a afternoon nap, when I smelled something burning. I opened the door and the haul was full of smoke. I couldn’t see what is burning because of the heavy and thick smoke. I knew that the 2’th door is locked, so closed my door and opened the window.” you may argue with me, but how can you argue with the fire chief?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    What I fail to understand in this whole story is why is a dormitory allowed to remain servicing young students without a 6 monthly check up by the fire department??? In europe ALL dormitories are inspected regularly by fire officials and all exits tested in order to receive a certificate saying they are within their fire regulations.

    love all yidden
    love all yidden
    13 years ago

    Maybe this isn’t the correct forum for my comment however its seems everytime there is a story on VIN about some chasidish community all the haters come out, as we start the counting of sefirah we may want to remind ourselves of the 24000 talmidim of rabbi akiva who died due to sinas chinam, we muct remember hashem hears seas and knows the TRUTH about our feelings and when its a true case of concern for the rabim or outright sinas chinam and there is no discrimination between chasidim litvaks modern orthodox etc. Have a wonderful yom tov

    New Square Protest
    New Square Protest
    13 years ago

    since the Protest in New Sqaure when the whole world was paying attention closly 7 was in all media LoHud & Channel 12 etc they Lock down the Yeshiva evry day & that causes emergencys were boys were Trapped in a FIRE! it could have been a Tragic R”L when will New Square learn that the boys lifes is more important then closing the building , why r the boys in danger??? why are they so SQAURE MINDED…?

    Clinton Ave. Monsey
    Clinton Ave. Monsey
    13 years ago

    The doors are padlocked every night when the bucherim are sleeping. We parents have complained over and over and nothing will ever change.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    I can’t say what happened in this case, but many years working inyeshiva buildings qualify me to say there is a major security problem. buildings are open 12 to 24 hours a day. emergency exits are frequently compromised because “I was in a rush” (and too lazy to make sure the door closed behind me). I could not guess how many incidents we had because we tried to do the right thing. I don’t know the answer, but there are always two sides to every story; maybe three or four. many times criminals got into a building because a door locked from the inside with a UL listed panic bar, intended only for emergency exit, was opened for the wrong reason. (e.g. shortcut to the bus, store, etc) no yeshiva can have enough security, maintenance or volunteers to help long term. so of course sometimes they just lock up. unfortunately talmidim, parents, hanhallah won’t care until chalilah, they are awakened the wrong way.

    Reserve Ramapo
    Reserve Ramapo
    13 years ago

    Too all defending the fire chief kim weppler, We all know he’s part of Preserve Ramapo he obviously has an agenda against new square he was one of 80 people protesting new square’s slaughter house (even though he live’s quite a
    distance away from the village) its also not a co incident that he was hired by the jew hating village of airmont to be their building inspector, I’m not here to take sides in this particular story all I’m saying is anything that come’s out of this jew hating german chief first find out the real facts.

    JoBlow
    JoBlow
    13 years ago

    Its time for new square to have their own FD just like KJ

    Fed Up
    Fed Up
    13 years ago

    So let me get this straight. The frumbags at New Square, who have a long history of ignoring fire codes and other zoning ordinances, cry “anti-Semitism” because there was a fire in a yeshiva, the exit doors were padlocked, and only a miracle saved these kids trapped inside. And of course, the fire chief, who has a Germanic last name, is automatically a Nazi.

    I say bring charges against those criminals who padlocked the fire doors. Let them all spend the next 20 years in prison where the doors ARE locked, ALL the time. And let the apologists on this site who cry “anti-Semitism” be their cellmates.