Fire Spews Smoke Over Cross County Parkway in Mount Vernon

A dense cloud of smoke hung over the Cross County Parkway in southern Westchester Wednesday morning and afternoon as a fire ripped through the top floors of a nearby Mount Vernon apartment building.

The blaze—at 3 Sherman Ave.—was visible from the parkway. Three ladder trucks with the Mount Vernon Fire Department poured water onto the roof and through fourth-floor windows in an attempt to quash the flames.

A passel of EMS workers stood ready nearby, and Mount Vernon police directed traffic away from the scene. The adjacent entrance ramp to the parkway's west-bound lanes was closed.

Firefighters battled the smokey blaze equipped with gas masks and chainsaws. Standing dozens of feet above the ground on a towering ladder, one firefighter worked to cut limbs off a nearby tree that threatened to catch alight.

There were no injuries from the sprawling stucco-and-brick home, converted into several apartments, burning, authorities told Patch.

The blaze started shortly before 11 a.m. At 11:30 a.m., the building's interior was deemed too dangerous and firefighters were pulled out of the structure.

At 11:30 a.m., fire authorities could not say whether the fire was under control.

Black and white smoke billowed out of the upper floors during the late morning hours and into the early afternoon, with the cloud hanging over nearby neighborhoods and the smell detectable almost a mile away.

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Correction: an earlier version of this story said no residents were inside the apartments when the house was ablaze. We regret the error.