Decade of Fire
In the 1970s, fires raged through the South Bronx--meet the brave citizens who outlasted the flames and saved their community.
In an underknown piece of New York history, the South Bronx looked like a war zone after an epidemic of fires in the 1970s. It was up to Vivian Vazquez and other community leaders to save their neighborhoods. Abandoned by landlords and city officials, buildings burned almost continuously from an estimated forty fires a day that razed 80% of area housing stock and displaced almost a quarter of a million residents. With the help of fellow survivors, Vivian tells the story of the brave advocates who banded together amidst the rubble and built a better future for their children.