By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
HAMILTON HEIGHTS — Fifteen people, including nine police officers, were injured Tuesday when a grease fire ripped through a Chinese restaurant on Broadway, authorities said.
The 11:14 a.m. fire started in the kitchen of New Home Sing Restaurant at 3555 Broadway, near W. 136th Street. The flames leapt to the ceiling and engulfed the one-story building, said Vicky Cheng, whose husband owns the restaurant.
A half-dozen workers fled the place unhurt, she said.
Police officers and firefighters arrived soon afterward, authorities said. Nine officers and five firefighters were taken to Harlem Hospital with minor injuries. Most likely suffered from smoke inhalation, New York Fire Department spokesman Frank Dwyer said.
One additional victim suffered minor injuries. Officials and witnesses were not immediately able to identify the victim.
The restaurant was gutted by the time the fire was under control at about 12:30 p.m. About 60 firefighters ended up responding to the scene, some searching two adjacent six-story apartment buildings for possible victims of smoke inhalation.
Two neighborhoring businesses, a barber shop and a laundromat, reeked of smoke but were not damaged, workers said.
Cheng said her family has owned the restaurant since 2001. They inherited it from her father-in-law who rebuilt the business after it was destroyed in a 1983 fire.
"Now we will have to renovate again," Cheng said.