NEW YORK CITY—A five-alarm fire that started in a Queens restaurant early Dec. 13 quickly spread throughout the attached row of stores, sparking an explosion, injuring a dozen people and destroying the businesses, including the newest Romantic Depot store.
According to the New York Daily News, the blaze started in a restaurant on Queens Boulevard in the Sunnyside neighborhood around 2:10 p.m. Firefighters believe a backdraft situation caused a small explosion which caused the rear of the restaurant to collapse. After the flames reached the shared space between the ceiling and the roof, it quickly spread to neighboring businesses.
A neighbor told the publication she and others watched the fire roll over the stores, noting, “We had seen the lingerie store basically impose, The walls were falling in, the mannequins were melting. It was uncontrolled for hours.”
A dozen firefighters and neighbors were treated for minor injuries.
Romantic Depot is New York's largest retailer of sex toys with eight locations in the New York City area. The Queens Boulevard location, the retail chain’s newest, opened its doors just a few weeks earlier, in October.
Despite hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and lost inventory, company officials vowed Romantic Depot will return to Queens as well as open a new Brooklyn location in 2019.
“The fire may have destroyed this beautiful NYC sex shop but we will return to Queens to service the community, because one of our company mottos is: ‘We never quit and we never give up,’” said company rep Erin Johnston. “ We can always try to make money, we are just gad no one lost their lives.”
In keeping up with Romantic Depot's sex positive and generous culture, the company will offer 50 percent off for all Queens and Brooklyn residents at its Manhattan, Bronx, Yonkers, Westchester County and Rockland County locations on its product line of Romantic Depot supercharged adult toys for one week. This offer was made so the community can share in gift giving during this holiday season and cover some of the travel expenses to its other stores locations.
For reports on the fire, visit YouTube.com.
For more information on receiving special holiday discounts, visit RomanticDepot.com.
