Decade of Fire Image

Decade of Fire

By Nick Rocco Scalia | November 11, 2018

Decade of Fire is a harrowing, heart-wrenching documentary, but before narrowing its focus to the devastation that plagued New York’s South Bronx neighborhoods in the 1970s, it evokes something that, in contrast, is devastatingly beautiful.

In the film’s opening passages, residents who lived in the South Bronx during the 1950s and 60s reminisce about the vibrant and supportive community where they grew up, worked, and raised their families. As they tell it, those city blocks and the mostly prewar buildings that stood on them were places where diverse cultures and people of widely varying ethnicities could not just harmoniously coexist but flourish, side-by-side — a unique, distinctly urban variation on what was once thought of as the American Dream. Warmed by nostalgia as those folks’ recollections no doubt are, the South Bronx still seems like an incredible place to have been at that time.

“…the rash of fires that destroyed a staggering number of homes and businesses throughout the South Bronx…”

To bring that idyllic cityscape to life for viewers, only to then methodically chronicle how it came to burn and crumble in the years that followed, is a rhetorical strategy that pays off powerfully for Decade of Fire co-directors Vivian Vazquez and Gretchen Hildebran. As the film’s title implies, their central concern is the rash of fires that destroyed a staggering number of homes and businesses throughout the South Bronx starting in 1972. The root causes and aftermath of these neighborhoods’ destruction are woven into a rankling portrayal of greed, neglect, and corruption, as well as a heartfelt tribute to the righteous indignation and fighting spirit of those who survived.

Vazquez lived through it all, witnessing firsthand the relentless spread of fires – officially blamed, at least at first, on things like faulty old wiring and criminal mischief – from the window of her family’s apartment on Leggett Avenue. She’s the film’s central figure, and her passion for the subject is palpable throughout; her search for answers and closure to the traumatic events that marked her younger years propels the documentary’s present-day sequences. She speaks with not only survivors of the South Bronx blazes but also, in a few revealing moments, with some of the fire-department personnel who responded to them (as well as her own adult son, to whom she attempts to explain the magnitude of what was lost) Interviews are juxtaposed with vintage news clips that feel almost apocalyptic in their street-level imagery of fleeing residents and buildings engulfed in flames.

“…closing segments championing resident-led rebuilding efforts that are still ongoing…”

Decade of Fire is, in a sense, a true-crime documentary, challenging the official stories that claimed the South Bronx fires to be the work of lawless, disenfranchised poor people with nothing to lose. Even much of the news reporting from the time – some of it shockingly condescending in its language – supports this explanation.  However, Vazquez makes a convincing case that forces well outside of her neighborhood deserve the lion’s share of the blame. The film clearly outlines a confluence of situations that, quite literally, fueled the fires, leading in many instances to property owners paying local residents to burn down their own neighborhoods. These factors include “redlining” policies that denied insurance to residents of low-income districts, callous and misguided “urban renewal” efforts from city government and drastic cost-saving cuts to vital public services. The latter of these factors also ensured that, once the fires were set, responses would be limited and investigations scarce. A sweeping, budget-minded restructuring of New York City’s Fire Department closed down fire stations in many Bronx communities, leaving residents either to rely on overtaxed engine companies from as far away as Staten Island or simply fend for themselves as their buildings burned.

The overall picture that Decade of Fire presents is a damning one, and although the film spends its closing segments championing resident-led rebuilding efforts that are still ongoing, it’s hard not to walk away feeling outraged over a great injustice that’s gone largely, horribly unpunished. The well-paced, tightly constructed, often crushingly emotional documentary is stirring and compelling throughout, illuminating both a dark chapter of New York City history and an all-too-common example of the extent to which inner-city people can be unjustly victimized by those in power,. Even (and, maybe, especially) for viewers whose only impressions of the South Bronx have been formed by the kinds of sensationalist media portrayals that are indirectly criticized here, its story of a decent – and, in many ways, remarkable – place to live, irrevocably altered by injustice and indifference, should serve as a cautionary lesson not easily cast aside.

Decade of Fire (2018) Written and directed by Vivian Vazquez and Gretchen Hildebran. Starring Vivian Vazquez, Ricardo Antonio Irizarry, Carmen Rosado, Miguel A. Amodeo, Hetty Fox, Robert Foster, John Finucane, Joe Flood, Evelyn Gonzalez

9 out of 10

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  1. Dr Angela Arias says:

    I came to 163 street in 1971 as one of the few immigrants from the Dominican Republic. As a 10 year old, I saw the building across the street burn down in the middle of the night. Other buildings around us had been abandoned by fire. I often speak about my experiences in the Bronx and have fond memories of growing up surrounded by a multiethnic group of hardworking people. I left to attend college and returned as a teacher to help my people (disenfranchised youth) find a better life as they educate themselves. I look forward to watching this film and sharing it with my students. I thank the producers of this film for bringing to life a real societal issue of injustice and inequality.

  2. Erycka says:

    So excit d to learn more and to link up to do my part in spreading the knowledge and history or tacism here in NY!

  3. Aixa Cruz says:

    Even though I moved from Avenue St. JOHN, I NEVER LEFT.
    I’ve seen drugged infested areas, building were burning around me and it broke my heart.
    I just could not just stand around and let it happen. I join the community board and started working with in the community as well as volunteering for over 40 yr. I still live in the bronx. Started teaching in schools that served under privileges children and found that giving back is the most filling job anyone can ever accomplish in this life.
    The only way we can succeed is to always remember where you came from.
    Vivian my long time friend having you making this documentary is a reminder that the fight is not over we must always make our voice heard.

    • Nilda Rivera says:

      Yes, indeed we must have our voices to be heard cause if we ever stop nothing is going to change. People voice matters. People together we can make a big difference even fighting against dirty laws.

  4. William Dennis says:

    There is a web site called http://www.nycfire.net and in that web site is a section on the Forum called; “History”. Clicking on that “History Section” you can find a tread called “My Younger Buff Years”. There are numerous stories, photos, videos of when this was going on. The site is owned and operated by a FDNY Lt whose father was also a firefighter who spent his earliest years working out of the firehouses on Intervale Ave, Prospect Ave, and Boston Rd (called the “Tin House”).

  5. Ortiz Sonia says:

    Of course not !

  6. Sonia ortiz says:

    I grew up in these streets . I remembered we would be bathing and mom runs in the bathroom yelling “there is another fire , we must leave” that is when we became squatters

    My roots , love it

  7. Victor says:

    I was there, until 1975 when I left on October 16, 1975, never to live there again. I visit every now and then, people still appear to think the same.

  8. Sheldon Clare says:

    I lived on Seabury Place near 172nd St. A few years ago, I went to my old neighborhood and every building that I remember was gone. However, Hermann Ridder JHS is still there.

  9. Lizzette alemany says:

    I lived in Fox street and my family lived in Leggett back in the 60’s. I would love to see this movie.

  10. Lionel Willams says:

    I grew up in the South Bronx on 160 St. between Melrose and Elton. lived there from 1936 until 1955. 1936 was the heart of the depression nevertheless, people helped one another. There was a closeness in the midst of great economic misery. There was a sense of community. We were all poor, but the South Bronx produced some great people. Although I moved from the South Bronx years ago, the sense of that great community lives with me and happily, it still produces some very wonderful and successful people. The fires of the South Bronx were not accidents they was a structured and economically motivated. Did anyone ever pay a price for this crime?

    • Frankie says:

      Wow, I grew up between 161 St. between Melrose and Elton. My years there were after you, from 1969 to 2003. The neighborhood has changed dramatically since then, but I still have good memories despite the fires all around me.

    • Ortiz Sonia says:

      Of course not !

  11. Nilza says:

    I grew up on Prospect Ave in the 60s & 70s when the Bronx was burning, when you’re living it you don’t realize the impact it had on you until years later, I still cherish those years

  12. Irma Toaanta says:

    Where can I get a copy of this film I lived through this era born in 1946 saw the drugs, prostitution burned out buildings it was a very sad time in the Bronx

  13. Elizabeth Rivera says:

    I grew up in the south Bronx, I experienced many fires all the buildings around us burning and our building being the only one standing we had Giant rats – no heat- conditions were atrocious and the odds of any of us making it out of the neighborhood to go away to school or get a good job were damn near impossible- my grandparents owned 2 homes side by side and they both burned down every lil house on that street burned down. Too much of a coincidence. I still see the south Bronx struggling and the people are stuck in the 80’s.

  14. Nina says:

    I would love to see this. I grew up in the south bronx on brooke ave and 139st and i remember the burned abandoned buildings. There was one right across the street from where i lived for many years. It was a drug addicts haven.

  15. Angel says:

    The only sad part to me is seeing your best friends disappear and not knowing who was next because of how rampant the fires were.

  16. Orlando Cepeda says:

    Sounds interesting. I was born in 1960 and grew up on fox street between 156 st and leggett ave and experienced our building catching fire at on point or another. So i can relate.

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