Fire Erupts At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, FDNY Says

NEW YORK CITY — A kitchen fire forced evacuations from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Saturday morning, according to the FDNY.

Firefighters battled a small blaze at 1275 York Ave. — across the street from New York Presbyterian Hospital, a novel coronavirus hotspot, on East 68th Street — that erupted just before 8 a.m., said the FDNY.

It took 36 units to get the flames under control by 9 a.m. and no injuries were reported, an FDNY spokesperson told Patch.

The blaze erupted as COVID-19 slams the city and overwhelms the health care system, with emergency hospitals set up in the Javits Center and docked in the New York Harbor.

The number of COVID-19 fatalities jumped by more than 300 between Thursday and Friday evenings, city data show.

There were 11,739 New York City dwellers hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Friday evening with 56,289 total cases, a 6,582 spike from the day before, Health Department data show.