Photo Courtesy of FDNY
Approximately 500 flammable cylinders were stored at the Willets Point Boulevard facility.
By Michael V. Cusenza
At least one person was arrested after City Fire inspectors seized more than 500 flammable propane/acetylene tanks during a routine inspection of a Willets Point facility, FDNY officials announced Thursday.
Photo Courtesy of FDNY
The owner has been fined and charged with a misdemeanor for illegally storing the tanks.
“Our field units of Bureau of Fire Prevention conduct inspections to keep the citizens of this city safe. To make sure that the properties in this city are living up to the fire code so that we don’t have any unfortunate events. Today, units of the Bureau of Fire Prevention conducted a re-inspection of this property and found approximately 500 flammable cylinders stored here, which is way over the permitted level of what they are allowed to have. These cylinders are in the process of being removed by vendors until they are brought down to the safe limit that they are allowed to carry. The fire marshals have apprehended the owner of the facility who’s being charged with a misdemeanor and he’s also going to be fined for having these cylinders on his premises,” FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief and Queens Borough Commander Fred Schaaf said from the Flushing scene. “This is a typical example of when we do not catch these types of situations in time they can lead to very bad outcomes. Two recent ones in the last two years was a fire in the Bronx at a junkyard where it extended into flammable cylinders. These cylinders started to B.L.E.V.E. (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion) or in layman’s terms, explode, which causes a great hazard. Also, recently within the last year we had an incident on the Long Island Expressway where a truck carrying too much propane overturned, these tanks also caught fire and exploded which caused a great hazard that had to be extinguished by this department. It’s imperative that we try to find these places before these situations take place.”
