Macy’s Store Evacuated After Electrical Fire
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Hundreds of shoppers were evacuated from Macy’s department store in Herald Square yesterday afternoon after a small fire broke out in an unused utility elevator.
Employees and customers left the 34th Street store in droves, after a fire on the first floor sent smoke into the rest of the nine-story building. No one was injured, although authorities closed some nearby streets to vehicles.
The fire broke out around 4:30 p.m. inside an abandoned elevator shaft that had not been used in decades, a spokesman for the Fire Department said. The spokesman described it as a small rubbish fire, and said the fire was under control before 6 p.m.
Fire marshals will investigate the cause, which is not considered suspicious, he said.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Macy’s – which held its annual Columbus Day sale yesterday – said no one was ever in danger. The nine-story building was reopened at 6:15 p.m.
