UPPER EAST SIDE — A fire tore through the top floor of a five-story Upper East Side building early on Friday morning, destroying several apartments and displacing families, officials and witnesses said.
The huge blaze started on the fifth floor of 343 E. 66th St. at around 1:15 a.m, a FDNY spokesman said.
"There was a lot of flames, the top of the building was very much on fire,” said David Brathwaite-Hill, the building's handyman who was called to the scene by tenants.
“All the tenants and their pets got out, the tenants were wearing shorts and flip flops, they were dumbfounded."
The Red Cross was at the scene distributing blankets and later providing displaced families with food, clothes and shelter, a Red Cross spokeswoman said. The number of families displaced was not immediately known, she said.
138 firefighters battled the fire, extinguishing it by 3:15 a.m. No injuries were reported, officials said.
"It was impressive. The flames were very very big. Nobody got hurt and that's the most important part," said Rafael Diaz, the building super.
