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Read the press release here.

Blaze Rips Through Bronx Building Leaving Many Homeless

By  Jess Wisloski and Carla Zanoni | April 6, 2013 4:30pm 

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS — A blaze that broke out in the top floor of a large Bronx apartment building sent six firefighters to the hospital and left 30 families without homes Saturday morning, officials said.

The three-alarm fire broke out at 9:55 a.m., fire officials said, on the sixth floor of 2254 Cedar Ave., near West 179th Street and the Major Deegan Expressway, and spread inside the cockloft, or the area between the top floor and the roof.

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It swiftly became a large fire, spreading among 30 families and their apartments on the fifth and sixth floors, according to Red Cross and fire officials.

According to officials on the scene, the building's roof partially collapsed, as well as the top floor, spreading the fire to the next floor down.

Firefighters hosed the blaze from buildings next door as they put down the flames, which were brought under control at 11:28 a.m., the FDNY said. In total, 33 units were called in to help with the fire, which required the efforts of 138 firefighters, officials said. 

Six firefighters were sent to area hospitals for minor injuries, two of whom were treated at Jacobi Hospital for minor burns, the FDNY said.

Traffic was snarled as fire engines filled the streets, and in some areas of the west Bronx, traffic patterns were rerouted.