OUR CITY, YOUR PAPER
No one covers the city like the Daily News. For more than a century, New York’s Hometown Newspaper has been your eyes and ears — and your voice. Do you have a story you think we should tell? Call us at (212) 210-NEWS or email us at news@nydailynews.com. This is your paper, and we are committed to covering the issues that matter to you. Here are some of our top stories from the past week:
Battery blaze: A 9-year-old Queens boy died Wednesday in a fire sparked by a charging moped battery. Remi Miguel Gomez Hernandez’s parents struggled in vain to rescue their trapped son from their Ozone Park home. The boy’s family moved into the illegally subdivided basement apartment on 102nd Road near 84th St. just hours earlier, authorities said. The FDNY said the flames were sparked by a charging lithium-ion battery and there were no smoke detectors. “The mom said she heard the boy saying ‘Mom, help me,’ ” recounted a stunned friend, Humberto
Gilbert. The child’s father suffered burns on his hands trying to get to his son, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. Remi was supposed to start the fourth grade at on Monday.
Historic storm: At least 15 people lost their lives and city transit ground to a standstill after a deluge of rain slammed New York on Wednesday night. The remnants of Hurricane Ida ripped through the five boroughs and surrounding counties with 7 to 9 inches of heavy rain and wicked winds. A Queens family drowned in the basement apartment, as did a Brooklyn man who couldn’t beat the rising flood waters. Peoabandoned ple their cars when highways turned into rivers (photo), and first responders rescued the helpless and, in some cases, their colleagues.
Rent relief: New Yorkers struggling to pay their rent as a result of the pandemic can breathe a bit easier. On Wednesday, lawmakers in Albany extended a statewide ban on evictions through mid-January. The state Senate and Assembly convened in-person for the first time in months for an unusual special session to pass two bills locking in the rental protections. The first renews the state’s moratorium on residential and commercial evictions and foreclosures through Jan. 15, 2022. The other measure adds another $400 million to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which covers arrears owed to landlords whose tenants can prove they can’t pay rent because of pandemic-related economic hardships.