Dozens left homeless after a six-alarm blaze in the Bronx

About 70 people huddled in All Hallows High School in the Concourse section of the Bronx Wednesday after a vicious six-alarm fire near Yankee Stadium left 30 apartments in the 181 unit building at 975 Walton Ave. uninhabitable.

The massive blaze, which began around midnight and sent 28 firefighters to area hospitals, "left hundreds displaced," said Sam Kille (cq), regional communications director for the Red Cross.

Residents who lived in the north half of the building were informed shortly after noon they could return, said Kille, but roof damage to the south side of the sixth story, where the fire began, and water damage underneath rendered 30 units uninhabitable. People living in another 60 units found out late Wednesday the were able to return to their homes. 

The Red Cross, which responds to 3,000 local disasters a year, most of them fires, scuttled its plans to find a shelter for the dozens of people left homeless late  Wednesday and instead began to work individually with the residents of the 30 destroyed apartments to address their housing and other long term needs.   

No one knows yet what caused the blaze, which broke out shortly after midnight and took 200 firefighters almost four hours to extinguish. Two residents were treated at the scene for minor injuries. The firefighters had all been released from area hospitals last night, said an FDNY spokesman.