Fire Destroys
Sunnyside Businesses
Photo Anthony Lombardo

Fire gutted a row of seven stores in Sunnyside last Thursday afternoon, halting traffic on the Number 7 elevated line and snarling traffic on a 10-block stretch of Queens Boulevard. The cause of the blaze was undetermined at press time.

Although destruction is not outwardly visible a day after a devastating four-alarm fire swept through a row of businesses on Queens Boulevard between 41st and 42nd Streets in Sunnyside, seven businesses were almost completely destroyed or sustained heavy damage in the conflagration.

The Nak Won Reformed Church and the Blue Sky Bar sustained smoke and water damage. Blooms Public House, Nams Sun Market, Pronto Envio, Butcher’s Block delicatessen, Wu’s Cleaners, the Grafton Travel Agency and a Dunkin’ Donuts were destroyed. The blaze broke out shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, August 21 and raced through the row of one-story stores, at times emitting smoke so thick that trains on the Number 7 elevated line had to be halted, as was traffic on a10-block stretch of Queens Boulevard. Residents of a nearby three-story apartment house had to be evacuated. The fire was brought under control shortly after 7 p.m. A police officer was treated for heat exhaustion and 17 firefighters suffered minor injuries.

"This has left a big hole in the community," Luke Adams, president of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce, said. Several of the businesses involved were chamber members, but all, Adams said, were committed to the neighborhood. "Sometimes you get businesses that don’t give a damn about their surroundings," Adams said. "These business owners aren’t like that. They’re all good people who are involved in the neighborhood. Losing them is the part that hurts."

Reports unsubstantiated at press time indicate that the stores will be rebuilt.