‘Nothing left’ of classic Bx. bike store after blaze
Owner, 83, stunned as fam biz burns to ground
A massive fire tore through a beloved Bronx bicycle shop, leaving nothing but rows of melted two-wheelers and a seven-decade family legacy up in smoke.
John Ventarola had his routine down pat: Every morning, the 83-year-old man left his Harrison, Westchester County, home and took the 10-mile trip down to White Plains Road in the Bronx to open his store, Arrow Cycle, at 9a.m. sharp.
But on Tuesday morning, he sat crestfallen in a borrowed folding chair in the middle of the street, watching helplessly as firefighters sifted through the remains of his destroyed Wakefield corner shop that went up in flames Monday night.
“He’s very devastated. [The store] is his life. It’s his business,” Ventarola’s daughter, Donna Parrelli, told the Daily News. “He loves coming here every day and talking with the neighborhood people.”
Ventarola was too devastated to speak on the phone, his daughter said.
“He’s going to be 84 years old next week,” Parrelli, 57, explained. “I said to him, ‘Dad, why don’t you retire?’ And he said, ‘If I retire it would kill me.’”
The fire erupted around 8:15p.m. and quickly ripped through the single-story business. More than 160 firefighters were called in to put out the smoky blaze.
The inferno was brought under control nearly five hours later but the damage was already done — the roof had caved in and nothing was left except two bikes that stood by the shop’s bay window.
Ventarola and his daughter
rremained at the sscene near E. 228th St. all morning as FDNY fire marshals combed through the debris, trying to figure out how the fire started.
“They have no clue yet,” Parrelli said. “They’re still investigating and haven’t said anything to us yet. We’re waiting for the fence to go up and then, hopefully, we can go home.”
Four firefighters suffered minor injuries fighting the blaze. Three were taken to nearby hospitals and a fourth was treated at the scene.
Ventarola’s father opened Arrow Cycle in the 1950s, with
Ventarola taking over 23 years later. It has since remained a neighborhood favorite.
“I remember buying my first bike here as a child in the ’90s,” one customer named Ariel wrote on Yelp in 2019. “I took my nephew here to get a new bike after passing by and seeing the shop was still open.”
“The owner John is still so engaged with all his customers and knows every bike in the shop,” Ariel continued. “I happened to ask John how long the shop has been opened I was shocked to learn it’s been open for 66 years !”
Parrelli doubts her father has it in him to rebuild the destroyed shop.
“We don’t know,” she said somberly. “He’s going to be 84. ... There’s nothing left.”