Barney Greengrass dining shed destroyed in string of UWS fires
April 7, 2022, 2:45 p.m.
Fire officials are investigating five separate blazes that were reported in the Manhattan neighborhood between 5 and 6 a.m. Thursday.
Police are searching for a suspected arsonist who set multiple small fires on the Upper West Side early Thursday, including one that destroyed the outdoor dining structure belonging to famed Jewish deli Barney Greengrass.
Fire officials said that five separate blazes were reported in the neighborhood between 5 and 6 a.m. There were no injuries.
Two of them were set inside subway stations along the 1 line at the 86th Street and 72nd Street stations, while two others were spotted above ground along the same stretch of Broadway, according to an FDNY spokesperson.
The fifth fire tore through the dining shed at Barney Greengrass, rendering the structure “unusable,” according to owner Gary Greengrass.
“You could smell it a block away,” said Greengrass, whose grandfather founded the smoked fish sanctum more than a century ago.
Photos show the charred remains of the plywood structure and its melted plastic rooftop.
“It's an expensive proposition,” Greengrass said. “There's electricity there, there's a lot of parts to the piece.”
A male was seen on surveillance setting the fire, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
It’s not the first time that the city’s pandemic-era dining sheds have attracted the interest of arsonists. Over the summer, a celebrity sommelier was arrested for setting fire to two Lower Manhattan dining sheds.
Numerous brush fires were also set in Central Park last month. More recently, an individual was arrested earlier this week for setting multiple trash fires.