Fire tore through a row of mom-and-pop stores in the Bronx yesterday destroying the livelihoods of owners who had been there for decades before it was brought under control after a three-hour battle.
“Kiss your store goodbye,” one firefighter told Michael Andreou, who had owned the National Coffee Shop on Westchester Avenue for 11 years.
The blaze, which started at around 6 a.m. in a bar on Westchester Avenue at Ferris Place in Westchester Square, swept through four other businesses, including a barber shop, a florist and a Chinese restaurant.
“It was five minutes, just like that,” Andreou said. “Everything is gone. I didn’t even have a chance to go back inside. I almost had a heart attack.”
John Kaltsas, owner of On the Square Florist, said he had run his store for 35 years.
“It’s the only thing I know,” he said. “It’s like losing someone from my family.”
Three firefighters were taken to Jacobi Hospital with minor injuries. Officials said the cause of the fire was under investigation.