Bronx Fires, Part 2: Consequences of the 1970s Fire Epidemic and The Bronx's Future
Channel: Bronx County Historical Society
Date: 2023-04-24

The Bronx County Historical Society presents its inaugural Annual Spring Lecture Series in Bronx History in April 2023 with the topic of "Bronx Fires", a two-part lecture series about the history and legacy of the 1970s fire epidemic in The Bronx by Drs. Deborah and Rodrick Wallace. In this second part, Drs. Wallace discuss the continued public health consequences the devastating fires of the 1970s South Bronx, which destroyed up to 80% of the housing stock in some neighborhoods. The Wallaces look at a variety of public health data from the 1970s until today to estimate that the fire epidemic of the 1970s has led in one way or another to the premature death of at least 100,000 individuals in The Bronx. The same areas most heavily devastated by the fires, the Wallaces have discovered, continue to be plagued up to today with some of the worst health outcomes in the nation, including during covid-19. The Wallaces argue that the lack of massive-scale re-investment in and political re-empowering of Bronx communities in the aftermath of the fires has created the perfect breeding ground for continued epidemics to develop and then spread throughout the U.S., as was the case with covid-19. The fact that severe building neglect by landlords and continual cuts to city services is happening today, parallel to the 1970s Bronx, makes the situation all the more critical.