UPDATE: A City of Ithaca press release states that the fire has been determined by the Ithaca Police Department to be suspicious and it is under investigation.
A fire at the Ithaca Asteri Apartments on Green Street prompted an evacuation of the building around 5:30 PM Sunday evening. The Ithaca Police and Fire Departments responded to the scene along with Bangs Ambulance personnel and NY State Police officers. The large presence of emergency vehicles saw traffic shut down at Green and Cayuga Streets.
Three additional fires have been reported in the building recently; on May 27th around 8:15 PM, May 28th around 8:50 AM and May 31st, the day before this most recent fire, around 12:55 PM.
Smoke was witnessed emanating from the entrance to the residential portion of the building as well as in the Green Street parking garage, which has a passageway into the building. There were several reports of building residents suffering from smoke inhalation.
The shutdown of traffic on Green Street at Cayuga combined with the closure of a portion of Cayuga Street for the Ithaca Festival produced a significant traffic snarl.
TCAT buses and vehicle traffic were forced to divert to South Cayuga Street. Cars traveling northbound on Cayuga had to U-Turn at the intersection with Green and go back the way they came. Green Street reopened one lane of traffic just after 8 PM. The Ithaca Fire and Police Department were still on scene dealing with the incident six hours after the initial call.
While there has been no official statement on the cause of the fire, dispatch audio indicates the focal point was a heater in the 10th floor stairwell.
In an interview at the scene, Ithaca Police Chief Thomas Kelly declined to state if he believed this was an incident of arson, pending the result of an investigation by the Ithaca Fire Department. When asked about dispatch audio indicating that his department was circulating a photo of a person of interest, Kelly said, “I haven’t heard anything about that.”
Kelly stated that building needs 24 hour security, and confirmed that the demands placed on his department’s resources by the building have been significant. Kelly stated that the level of support for the building may decline in the future. “We’re not private security,” Kelly said.
The Ithaca Asteri building is owned and operated by The Vecino Group. Vecino also owns and maintains the Arthaus Apartments in Ithaca’s West End, which has had issues similar to the Asteri, including fires being deliberately set, once seeing two arson fires occur within two days. Both the Arthaus and Asteri projects received significant public support in the form of state, local & federal grants and tax abatements.
Fires have been an issue at the Asteri since it first opened to tenants approximately one year ago. June 21, 2024 saw an umbrella being burned in the stairwell, an incident similar to reported recent fires. The Asteri, at 118 East Green Street, is also the site of the Downtown Ithaca Conference Center.
The entrance of the Asteri apartments is unsecured due to the locking mechanism for the door being broken. Anyone is able to enter the building at any time. Additionally, while the building does have surveillance cameras, there are none in the stairwells, as one irate Asteri resident was witnessed pointing out to a security guard.
Dispatch audio indicated that the East side of the building has significant soot from the fire. Residents were allowed to reenter the building around 10:15 PM, with one stating “The building smells like smoke.”
A request for comment from a representative of The Vecino Group and Ithaca Asteri did not receive a response.
Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Ithaca Police Department via the following means.
Police Dispatch: 607-272-3245
Police Administration: 607-272-9973
Police Tipline: 607-330-0000
Anonymous Email Tip Address: www.cityofithaca.org/ipdtips