All-Hands Fire at St. Ignatius Loyola Parish

An all-hands fire at a St. Ignatius Loyola Parish building on East 83rd Street sent clouds of black smoke into the air over the Upper East Side on Tuesday afternoon before firefighters controlled the blaze. There were no injuries in the fire.

The fire started on the roof of 53 East 83rd Street, between Madison and Park Avenues, an FDNY spokesperson said. A representative of St. Ignatius Loyola Parish said that the building, which is normally used as a residence for priests, had been undergoing renovations and was unoccupied at the time of the fire. Students and staff at the nearby Loyola School were evacuated for precautionary reasons.

The FDNY received a call reporting the fire at 2:03 p.m. and declared the fire under control at 2:33 p.m.

Witness Lawrence Sullivan said he “saw smoke pouring out of the top of the building” from his office window, which faces the parish building, and rushed to street level.

“By the time I got downstairs the ladders were already up the side of the building and there were half a dozen firefighters on the roof,” Sullivan said. “It was amazing how quickly they got there.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.