5-Alarm Blaze Engulfs Junction Blvd.
BY DAN MILLER

Firefighters stand in front of Duane Reade drug store, 37-30 Junction Blvd., Corona, gutted in an early morning fire on Tuesday. Firefighter in cherry picker surveys rooftops for damage.

A fire that began in a Duane Reade drug store in a shopping strip on Junction Boulevard just north of Roosevelt Avenue in Corona some time between 3:30 and 4 a.m. on Tuesday August 7 engulfed half a dozen other stores before firefighters were able to bring the flames and dark smoke under control.

More than 150 firefighters took more than four hours to put out the five-alarm fire. A dozen firefighters were treated for minor injuries and eight were taken to nearby hospitals. No civilians were injured in the fire, which was under control by 8 a.m.

Hundreds of early morning shoppers were greeted with street closings and traffic pattern changes due to the hundreds of firefighters and dozens of fire trucks that had battled the blaze through the early morning, just a stone's throw from the No. 7 train. Although the blaze was near the No. 7 line, service was not affected, but the Q47 bus was routed around the emergency zone set up by the NYPD.

Photo Dan Miller/ DMD IMAGES

According to FDNY sources, the blaze first engulfed the Duane Reade store, which was totally destroyed, and then spread to nearby buildings, setting additional businesses afire.

Police and Fire Department personnel helped evacuate five residential buildings as well.