A fire ripped through a Jewish-owned home in the Forshay section of Monsey, Wednesday afternoon.
The fire started just after 12:21PM, at the home located at 46 Forshay Road.
Multiple fire departments were on the scene battling the blaze.
There did not appear to be anyone at home at the time of the fire, and there were no injuries to any occupants.
Rockland Hatzolah was on the scene along with Rockland Chaveirim, and a few firefighters were being treated for heat exhaustion.
Videos on social media (see below) were questioning why news choppers were on the scene before the fire department.
Another video on WhatsApp was questioning why it took 19 minutes for a second “tanker truck” to arrive at the scene.
A fire investigator was requested to the scene to determine the cause of the blaze.
One tenant in the basement of this home is a handicapped individual who lives with his aide. He lost everything. A Chesed Fund has been launched to help him purchase what he needs. His medical expenses are very high, and had no renters insurance.
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6 Responses
“Videos on social media were questioning why news choppers were on the scene before the fire department”
Perhaps its because the fire alarm went out over the emergency radio network which can be scanned and picked up simultaneously by news media as well as the local fire departments. If a helicopter was already nearby for some other reason, it will get to the scene faster than a fire truck. Alternatively, if this area is served by some local volunteer fire department and the guys were davening mincha when the alarm came in, or they were responding to a fire in another neighborhood etc. it just may take longer to get there. Even after the first truck arrived, it seemed like everyone was wandering around observing the house burn down but little effort was visible (at least on the video) at extinguishing the fire.
The comments about the fire department taking so long to arrive on scene are abhorrent. I would like to thank the members of the12 volunteer fire departments, including some of my friends, who left work to respond. The Monsey VOLUNTEER fire department serves the Monsey community and is served by members of the community. Most of the Jewish members aren’t part of the “heimish” community and live across town. Instead of relying on members that live on the outskirts of the community to respond to the heart of Monsey, why don’t some people from the local community, who the fire department serves, go pick up an application and join? I would also like to point out that Monsey FD tried putting up a sub station closer to where many of their members live, which happens to be 0.7 miles away from today’s house fire. Unfortunately the community has not allowed the sub station to be built.
I would also like to thank the *experts* who are heard criticising the firefighters for doing a scene size up and establishing a water supply instead of blindly attacking and fighting the fire immediately after arriving on scene. I’m sure the firefighters would not have been able to do their job without you!
Overall, great job by the 12 fire departments, 2 FDs that stood by covering the town, Ramapo PD, Rockland Sheriffs, and 2 Ambulance corps. Oh, and I almost forgot, hatzoloh and chaveirim whom this article praised greatly (with all sincerity, hatzoloh did a great job and transported a few firefighters too)!
Yd095
While the Monsey community (at least most of it) appreciates what the fire department does for us, it’s still doesn’t explain why just in the last 3 weeks there was 2 structure fires and it took more than 20 minutes for the 1st apparatus to show up,
And while blaming the heimish community for not joining the fire department it’s seems to me that either you were/are in the fire department or you have close friends in there, but the truth is that they don’t want us there, how do I know? Because Mr Monsey boy himself gave in an application to join but was denied because I have a beard, now I know it’s department policy not to have exterior firefighters, but how about that changes? Why could spring valley and hillcrest have exterior but Monsey who serves what you call mostly the heimish community can’t have exterior?
Now to sum it up, everybody appreciates what the Monsey Fire Department does for the community, and yes some changes are needed , but to mock hatzolah and chaveirim for what they do and being there quickly is wrong.
The fact of the matter is all of Rockland is served by volunteer fire department and all suffer from a severe response time during the daytime hours, the solution may be to have paid staffers during daytime hours.
In reference to the prior comment about the MFD member living in the outskirts of the district the rules to join are to reside within 5 miles of the station,
If reference to your comment about the members of MFD most are ex chasidish or ex yeshivish with an open hostility to the “heimishe” community they are very open about it and do so in public forums, in particular a certain fire LT. in a neighboring district and a certain member of the fire police, KJVFD is a chasidisher fire deptament with amazing response time and a very capable fire service, Bloomingburg NY has 5 chasidish members.
If the fire service was genuinely interested in improving the fire service they would tone down the hostility and make a real effort to recruit the heimsiher and chasidisher crowd
” His medical expenses are very high, and had no renters insurance.” Unbelievable and unacceptable! Why do so many in the frum olam not properly and (at times legally) insure themselves with home owners insurances, renters insurance, medical insurance, auto insurance, life insurance? Time and time again! I’m sorry, but I humbly give what I’m able to for a Tomchei Shabbos and yeshivos in my community. I can’t support these fundraisers for preventable financial impacts.
Gadolhadorah What exactly did you want ppl to do? Fill cups of water and throw it at the house??