Fire at Hunts Point Meat Market Is Mostly Confined to One Building
Every day, thousands of trucks come and go from Hunts Point, a bulge of land on the Bronx waterfront that serves as a supermarket for the New York region.
Fire officials said a blaze at the Hunts Point meat market started at Master Purveyors, a family-owned business that opened in 1957. It was unclear what effect the blaze had on its stock of beef.
Firefighters towered over the Hunts Point market in the Bronx Tuesday after a blaze damaged parts of the meat section. Major damage appeared to be limited to one building.
On Tuesday, a day after a fire at the Hunts Point meat market, firetrucks were there, too, occasionally sending bursts of water into a two-story building that emitted a trail of smoke mixed with the smell of raw beef. Rods of structural steel were exposed to the air, charred and twisted.
Firefighters said they were familiar with the building at the Hunts Point Cooperative Market because it was where they had stocked up for firehouse meals.
On Tuesday, fire marshals were investigating the cause of the blaze, which caused millions of dollars in damage and possibly spoiled meat.
The flames burned three or four businesses in one building at the meat market; the nearby produce and fish sections — which moved to Hunts Point when the Fulton Fish Market in Lower Manhattan closed in 2005 — were not affected. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries.
Market officials said that the fire would likely have no effect on the price or availability of beef and other meat in supermarkets and restaurants in the city.
Fire Department officials said the blaze started in Master Purveyors, a family-owned business that opened in 1957.
The company specializes in beef that arrives at its market on the hoof and is stored hanging from giant hooks, unlike the more modern method of beef arriving already cut and packaged.
Butchers then treat the beef in a process called dry aging, which is said to make the meat more tender, before it is sold in high-end restaurants like Peter Luger Steak House. Marilyn Spiera, the president of Peter Luger, said she became nervous when she heard about the fire, but was reassured by the owners of Master Purveyors that the restaurant would still get its beef.
“I don’t think it’s going to have much of an impact,” she said.
Mark Solasz, a co-owner of Master Purveyors and a son of the company’s founder, Sam Solasz, said the company would resume making deliveries on Thursday.
Owners of several stores in the meat market said they had donated temporary office space to Master Purveyors so that it could continue business.
“We’re all in this together,” said Vincent Pacifico, who owns Vista Food Exchange, a meat wholesaler, which was damaged slightly in the fire. “I’m just happy no one got hurt.”
Because most of the damage appeared to be limited to the offices of Master Purveyors, which was on the second floor of the two-story building, it was unclear what effect the fire had on the business’s beef, which was left hanging inside a massive freezer-storage room on the first floor.
People familiar with the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to discuss its business matters, said there might have been as much as $1 million in beef at Master Purveyors when the fire broke out.
Inspectors from the United States Department of Agriculture were at the building on Tuesday to check on the meat, which might not be fit for consumption now because electricity to the freezer had been cut off.
Next door to Master Purveyors, DeSola Provisions, which specializes in corned beef, pastrami, salami and cheesecake, also was damaged and was closed on Tuesday.
The Web site of the company, which supplies delis in Manhattan and elsewhere, says DeSola has been in business for 50 years and boasts, “Even your grandmother couldn’t spice and smoke prime beef pastrami this good.”
The company did not return a call seeking comment on Tuesday.
Fancy Foods, which sells products including veal tongues and tails, goose livers and short ribs, was also closed.
Other neighboring stores, however, including Vista Food Exchange and Endicott, were open for business.
Inside the offices of Vista Food on Tuesday, dozens of workers were at their desks as large air-filtering machines cleaned the air. A few employees wore masks to avoid breathing in too much smoky air.
The building was damaged slightly, said Mr. Pacifico, and Vista’s beef, poultry and pork stock was stored in a different building in the meat market.
“Our guy was closing up and he saw the flames, so he called 911 and then he called me, and because of the way the wind was blowing, he said, ‘I think we’re in trouble,’ ” said Mr. Pacifico, a member of the market’s board of directors.
Firefighters arrived in time to contain the damage, although Mr. Pacifico said he would likely lose money in sales because the offices’ fiber optics had been damaged and it had no Internet service or computer-generated billings.
“It’s like the old days,” he said. “We’re back to pen and paper.”
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
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