Tipsters report that a manhole on 114th and Broadway is spewing flames. Watch your toes!

Update: A Bwogger on the scene tells us the police are urging people to clear the area, warning that “it might explode.”

Public hazard? Or NSOP barbecue?

Passersby of 110th and Amsterdam are reporting a visible building fire, only a few properties away from Harmony. According to Bwog’s reporter at the scene, firemen are using a ladder and axes to rescue people from the building. Four firetrucks, two ambulances, and multiple police cars have arrived at the scene to handle the situation, temporarily trapping several taxis.

Check back here for more information as it becomes available.

Due to a fire alarm, River has been evacuated. Overheard from one of the tens of residents milling around aimlessly outside, “My room smelled like a scone…is that a bad thing?”

Two cars collided a short while ago near Amsterdam and 105th, and there were reports of a loud bang and a fire afterward. The fire is out now after a quick response from the FDNY and everybody has been removed from the wreck, but you may have still smelled the thick smoke.

Reina Terror

In  Hidden Talents, Bwog exposes your classmates as the strange and glorious wunderkinder they truly are. Below, Bwog’s Embers Enthusiast, Atira Main, interviews the vivacious vixen Reina deBeers, a fire breather. If you know a stunt double, hostage negotiator, or curling champion who’d like to be profiled, email us at tips@bwog.com.

You may have seen Reina deBeers, GS ’12, around campus: with a flower perennially tucked in her hair, she resembles vintage pin-up transported to campus. Reina’s a psych major focusing on human sexual behavior, so maybe it’s not completely unexpected that she’s also known as “Reina Terror,” a fire breather who performs a mesmerizing side show act. Reina takes to the stage with a set of torches, fire fans dipped in white gas, and a bottle of lamp oil. She chooses her own music and choreographs her set, sometimes following a specific event’s theme. Her performances combine dance and fire; billowing balls of fire and tendrils of flame lap at her body. Flames entrance people naturally, but she build the tension by rapidly spinning fire to give the appearance of danger, then slows it down with her flickering fan. “If you move too quickly, people won’t even notice what happened,” she explains. The performances invoke an emotion response, ranging from erotic and aggressive to sacred and mellow. After all, fire is sexy.

Reina started her sideshows at the tender age of 16. She was finishing up high school and trying to find an acting gig, while simultaneously working in a tattoo shop and living in a Williamsburg loft. While most people get stuck with neurotic cat owners or secretive meth heads, Reina’s first roommate was Reverend B. Dangerous: a sideshow performer, who saw Reina as the freaky weirdo she really is (on the inside). The Reverend gave young Reina her first taste of fire—literally. “We were sitting on the couch and he was holding the torch. I was nervous and he just lit the torch and stuffed in my face,” remembers Reina. “I put it out with my mouth and that was how it all started.” Reina performed for fun for a year or two, learning other side show acts like mental flossing, human dartboard, bed of nails, and glass walking. “He taught me to walk on glass over the phone.” But Reina promises, “I had a buddy there for safety of course.” When she first started, most sideshow performers at Coney Island and in Ripley’s were men. But Reina went pro at 18, relentlessly representing the fearless female freak, in her signature costume of heels fishnets, bloomers, black leather corset, and bra. (more…)

Just after the conclusion of the Japan benefit concert at Miller, a horde of fire trucks pulled up outside Dodge, in response to a real fire. After hearing from the FDNY that the source was a copier, a student developing photos in the darkroom in Dodge confirmed that a laser printer was the origin of the fire. He heard someone scream “fire!” and shortly after, everyone evacuated the building. The firefighters seemed to have cleared the scene pretty quickly, and were already exiting the building by the time Bwog arrived there.

Update (11:30): Bwog confirmed the story with the student who was working with the laser cutter in Dodge, and left it unattended. The student was very upset and asked to be kept anonymous. Firefighters still on the scene said it was a big fire.

They actually used the hydrant!

More photos after the jump

Hundreds of freshmen are stranded outside of John Jay tonight due to a fire-related incident. Multiple people Bwog talked to indicate that they saw smoke coming out of trash chutes and saw smoke in the hallways, even on the highest floors. A popular theory amongst the stranded is that someone threw something flammable or ignited down into the trash chutes.

There are firemen on the scene now, and there’s no word of when students will be allowed back in.

Update, 1:11am: They’ve been letting students back in for a while and the crowd has all but cleared. The security guard at the John Jay desk informed us that someone threw an object (he conjectured a cigarette or something of the like, as most students have) down the 7th floor chute, which fell to the 4th floor and caught on fire, causing sprinklers to go off. There is also no elevator service currently. We’ll keep you updated with any further major developments!

Update, 2:36am: A tipster that actually lives on JJ7 has informed us that students on the floor with a view of the trash chute before the fire did not see anyone dropping anything down there. While some of the 7th floor residents were studying, someone spotted smoke coming from the chute and opened its door. This caused more smoke to billow out, and this is possibly what eventually set off the fire alarm. The plot thickens!

EC resident Ye Liu spotted these plumes of smoke rising over Harlem.

We’ll keep you updated when we find out more.

Update: The fire appears to be coming from under a train bridge in East Harlem near 138th St. No word yet on what caused the fire.

The fire was at the Harlem Metro North station. From the Computer Science Department:

There was a fire underneath the Metro North Railroad Bridge located near E.132nd Street and the Harlem River Drive. The fire extended up the anchorage of the bridge and affected the 3rd rail.

After a devastating fire left Morningside Heights brunch enthusiasts sans Eggs Benedict from the Gods for 6 long months, Bwog was extremely concerned about a tip received from disconcerted patron Laura Gabriele while dining at Community Food and Juice last night.

Ms. Gabriele’s server informed her that there was a possibility that some sort of short circuit could have set off a small fire. First the NYPD arrived, and then Community called the fire department. The situation was managed within 20 minutes. The fire department inspected the kitchen, bathrooms and basement of Community, and then left.

Bwog was overwhelmingly relieved to hear a cheerful Chad answering the phone at the restaurant this morning. He explained that last night while our tipster was dining, “the manager on duty smelt something electrical, and was being very cautious” (and rightly so!) He asked NYPD officers who were hanging out across the street to come investigate. They agreed that there was an unusual odor, and agreed to call the fire department.

Upon the arrival of the firefighters, it was discovered that the source of the odor was not an electrical fire, but in fact a new generator Columbia had installed in the basement earlier that morning, that had only been operating on a test run for a few hours. The brand new machine was emitting something akin to “a new car smell,” that we were assured was totally harmless and has now completely dissipated. While last night some diners were moved towards the front of the restaurant to escape the unpleasant smell, nobody was evacuated, and Community is open for business as usual.

Bwog has received many tips of a fire (a real one, not like those ones that wake you up at 2 a.m.) in 616, on 116th and Riverside.  The building has been evacuated and firefighters are “smashing” windows. Eegad! Tipster Samantha Child reports: “Fire fighters are throwing all of her belongings out the window, including a hot pink feather boa.”Observe below! Photos by Samantha Child and Megan McGregor. As of 5:15 PM, the street was quiet and the trucks were gone.

Photo: cnn.com

It’s Groundhog Day, and Punxsutawney Phil thinks there’s more winter coming. Staten Island Chuck, though, forecasts an early spring.  In any case, if you see Ned Ryerson, run. Or start ice sculpting. (Gothamist)

From our comments: reader Pantsless sent in this awesome time-shifting map of New York. (Kottke)

Firefighters rescued a man and a woman hanging from the windows of a fire-filled Harlem building. Why did we stop wanting to grow up to be firefighters, exactly? (NYPost)

Mayor Bloomberg has yet to decide whether last year’s car-free Times Square experiment will become permanent. Beach chairs, apparently, are for puny, two-term mayors. (NYT)

Student activism, alive and kickin’. (NYPost)

Fire alarm in Harmony. Stop Drop And Roll Expert Sean Zimmerman sends this photo of the fire trucks outside.

An eagle-eyed member of Columbia’s secret safety patrol has spotted what appears to be a violation of OSHA regulations and New York fire codes in the Butler 213 computer lab.

Labels on a fire extinguisher in the lab indicate the fire-fighting device is 10 years overdue for its routine servicing—the series of tests that ensure the extinguisher will work when you pull the handle.

Seeking to draw attention to the problem, the safety-minded do-gooder left behind an indignant sign splashed with various font weights and sizes, which is shown at right.

After the jump is a close-up of the extinguisher’s service tag, but before you look, just think: the last time someone checked on this extinguisher, PrezBo lived in Michigan. Cargo pants were still popular, and this thing called an “MP3 player” had just hit the market.

But seriously, folks, if your fire extinguisher has outlived ‘N Sync, it’s time to change it.

(more…)

The free-speech-on-campus group FIRE has released its new report on free speech at Columbia, giving the university a “red light” rating. FIRE took issue with the broad wording of the policy, which “defines ‘sexual harassment’ as ‘any unwanted sexual attention.’ Sexual harassment can also include a “hostile environment,” which includes “love letters,” “sexist jokes” and “sexual innuendos.” Sexual innuendos? Somebody tell the Varsity Show!

It’s not the first time FIRE and Columbia administration have clashed over sexual harassment policy: eight years ago, a rewritten policy came under attack from FIRE and numerous other groups, who claimed that it did not provide for any due process for the accused. The fight eventually led to the resignation of Charlene Allan, the administrator in charge of the Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Education, an office that has since been replaced by the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Program

Although FIRE said that the Health Services policy “is solely responsible for the university’s red-light rating,” they also expressed concern over the university’s spam guidelines, calling them “dangerously broad.” Columbia joins Brown, Cornell, Harvard, and Princeton in the “red light” catergory, while Yale has stayed in the “yellow light” category and Penn and Dartmouth remain in the “green light” category.

Though most Nussbaum residents can return to their rooms by 8 p.m. tonight, the effects of the Community Food and Juice fire may be felt for weeks to come.

Housing officials say repairs are still in progress and some building utilities will be phased back into operation over the coming days. One elevator will be out-of-service until at least next week, while the laundry room will not be operating for an indefinite period. All stoves in the building will also be out-of-order until all damaged gas lines are repaired.

Meanwhile, second-floor residents whose rooms were damaged by the smoke and fire can expect relocation to temporary housing on campus.

Details can be found in a Housing e-mail posted after the jump. (more…)