Smoke that billowed outside Tiffany & Co.’s New York flagship location on Thursday morning was from a transformer that caught fire underneath the sidewalk, according to the city’s fire department.
The smoke didn’t enter the building, according to Richard Blasi, a battalion chief for the FDNY. The store is likely to open on Friday, according to two Tiffany employees who were standing outside the flagship around 5 p.m. Earlier on Thursday, Tiffany had said that it expected the store to open by the end of the day.
The blaze broke out this morning before store hours, Tiffany said. The FDNY then arrived at the location on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan and put out the fire, which was captured in several posts on Twitter.
The store was closed for three years for a costly renovation and opened its doors again at the end of April. Prior to being acquired by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, the location represented about 10% of Tiffany’s sales.
By Angelina Rascouet and Aurora Martinez, with assistance from Jeannette Neumann and Jonathan Roeder.
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