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Waverly Inn Workers Rescue Tenant After Fire Breaks Out

By  Ben Fractenberg and Amy Zimmer | June 25, 2012 6:06pm | Updated on June 25, 2012 6:58pm

Sign hanging outside the Waverly Inn.
Sign hanging outside the Waverly Inn.
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Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

GREENWICH VILLAGE — A fire broke out Monday evening in the basement of the Greenwich Village brownstone housing Graydon Carter's Waverly Inn.

Employees from the famously hard-to-get-into restaurant helped rescue a panicked tenant, a bartender said.

More than 12 units with 60 firefighters responded to the 5:20 p.m. call to 16 Bank St., FDNY officials said. The fire was under control by 6:15 p.m.

It was unclear how the fire started or if it was connected to the A-list restaurant, which hadn't yet opened for dinner. 

Even before the Fire Department evacuated the building, workers noted the smoke and went outside. That's when they heard a screaming tenant on the first floor.

"She was freaked out. She couldn't get out," said Waverly Inn bartender Andrew Katz, 33. He and a waiter helped carry her out of her window.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Waverly Inn workers did not immediately know if they would open for dinner Monday night.