As Raphael Torres gazed at what was left of the hair salon he has owned with his wife for the last four years, he couldn't help but get emotional.
“Heartbroken, heartbroken because this really has been my wife’s profession since she was 16 years old," said Torres.
His business, as well as two others, along Springfield Boulevard were destroyed in the early hours of Saturday morning after a four-alarm fire ripped through them.
Torres and his wife rushed over when they got the call their business was up in flames.
“We came here because we live about five minutes and she fainted. I had to take her back home because this is all she knows. It looked like it was coming out of the pharmacy and then all of a sudden the roof went up," he said.
The FDNY says the flames broke out around 2:30 in the morning.
About 250 firefighters responded within minuets of the first 911 call about the fire.
Two firefighters were seriously injured, trapped in the rear of the building when part of the roof came down on them.
Both were taken to the hospital, they are expected to recover.
A third firefighter also suffered some minor injuries while battling the blaze.
“Both members sustained serious but non life threatening injuries, one member had burns as a part of his injuries,” explained Jospeh Jardin, Assistant Chief with the FDNY.
Torres says he is thankful the firefighters will be okay and that no one else was seriously injured.
“The most important thing to me is that nobody got really seriously hurt. That is materialistic. We can rebuild but you can’t bring back somebody.”
Torres said that rebuilding won’t be easy as he is still recovering from the pandemic.
“First the lockdown from the COVID, now you lose your business, and it is not easy to restart something especially when times are hard for everybody.”
Torres said he is hoping to get access to his business soon to see if there is anything he can salvage.
The FDNY is investing what caused the fire.