James O’Rourke reports: Firefighters had to knock down a locked door in order to evacuate teenage boys from a fire in a yeshiva in New Square yesterday after the students living in the dormitory were unable to get out because several exits had been padlocked, said Kim Weppler, chief of the Hillcrest Fire Company.
The Washington Avenue fire occurred on the second floor of the boys’ dormitory at Yeshiva Avir Yakov. It appeared to have started in a garbage can shortly after 2 p.m. and then spread throughout the hallway.
Weppler said that when firefighters arrived, some of the estimated 30 teenage boys living in the dorm had escaped the building, but that about 20 others had been unable to evacuate because several of the exits had been padlocked or dead-bolted.
{Lohud.com/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
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