Fire breaks out underneath Tiffany & Co.’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan
The Tiffany & Co. flagship store in Manhattan saw part of its exterior blackened by smoke by an underground street fire Thursday, prompting an evacuation and causing two minor injuries.
The fire started around 9:38 a.m., the Fire Department of the City of New York said, by a blown transformer in a separated vault underground that provides power to the 10-story building.
The subterranean spark started shortly before store employees began preparing to open for the day.
Despite appearances, the fire did not actually get into the building, FDNY officials indicated.
“It was an underground transformer, either overheating or some type of electrical issue. It’s an outside transformer fire, which had nothing to do with the [Tiffany’s building]. It was isolated,” FDNY Battalion 8 Chief Richard Blasi said, according to the New York Post.
Video posted on Twitter by user @rinachavezm showed smoke billowing outside the first floor of the luxury store, which is next door to Trump Tower on Manhattan&rsquo’s Fifth Avenue.
Unfortunate fire today at Tiffany’s in New York City. pic.twitter.com/ZCIoyEYnrg
— Cuty (@rinachavezm) June 29, 2023
FDNY personnel evacuated 100 people as a precaution, with two incurring minor injuries from the incident. The conflagration was put out by firefighters by noon.
Tiffany & Co. said it did not expect the incident to keep the store closed all of Thursday.
The 186-year-old company’s store was first built in 1940, but the location was made most famous in the American and global pop culture lexicon by the 1961 Audrey Hepburn feature “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
The store completed an approximately $500 million, multi-year refurbishment in April.
