{"id":18666,"date":"2019-07-24T08:46:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T16:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=films&p=18666"},"modified":"2025-10-14T15:29:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:29:59","slug":"decade-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"films","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/decade-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Decade of Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Decade of Fire<\/i><\/b> covers a shocking but untold piece of American urban history, when the South Bronx was on fire in the 1970s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Left unprotected by the city government, nearly a quarter-million people were displaced as their close-knit, multiethnic neighborhood burned to the ground, reducing the community to rubble.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Buildings burned almost continuously from an estimated forty fires a day that destroyed 80% of area housing stock and displaced a quarter-million residents. <\/span>Decade of Fire <\/span><\/i>uses striking, never-before-seen archival and home movie footage, plus testimonials from retired FDNY firefighters and brass, as well as Bronx historians and community organizers, to reveal the real reasons for the devastation, showing what can happen when a community chooses to fight back and reclaim their neighborhood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the help of fellow survivors, Vivian V\u00e1zquez Irizarry, who grew up in the South Bronx, and other community leaders tell the story of how they banded together amidst the rubble and built a better future for their children.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decade of Fire covers a shocking but untold piece of American urban history, when the South Bronx was on fire in the 1970s.\u00a0 Left unprotected by the city government, nearly a quarter-million people were displaced as their close-knit, multiethnic neighborhood burned to the ground, reducing the community to rubble.\u00a0 Buildings burned almost continuously from an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1261,1239,1225,1263,1264,1226],"class_list":["post-18666","films","type-films","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-human-rights","topic-identity","topic-politics-and-government","topic-poverty-2","topic-race-ethnicity","topic-social-justice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDecade of Fire | The South Bronx Fires | Independent Lens | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the 1970s, fires raged through the South Bronx--meet the brave citizens who outlasted the flames and saved their community, in "Decade of Fire."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/decade-of-fire\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Decade of Fire | The Bronx Fires | Independent Lens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the 1970s, fires raged through the South Bronx--meet the brave citizens who outlasted the flames and saved their community, in "Decade of Fire."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/decade-of-fire\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Independent Lens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-14T22:29:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DOF_1920x1080_Audience_Award_Composite_cropped-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Decade of Fire | The Bronx Fires | Independent Lens\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In the 1970s, fires raged through the South Bronx--meet the brave citizens who outlasted the flames and saved their community, in "Decade of Fire."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/decade-of-fire\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/decade-of-fire\/\",\"name\":\"Decade of Fire | The South Bronx Fires | Independent Lens | PBS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/decade-of-fire\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/decade-of-fire\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DOF_1920x1080_Audience_Award_Composite_cropped-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-24T16:46:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-14T22:29:59+00:00\",\"description\":\"In the 1970s, fires raged through the South Bronx--meet the brave citizens who outlasted the flames and saved their community, in \\\"Decade of Fire.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/decade-of-fire\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/decade-of-fire\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/decade-of-fire\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DOF_1920x1080_Audience_Award_Composite_cropped-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DOF_1920x1080_Audience_Award_Composite_cropped-2.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"A group of people with dark skin tone help to clean up a large pile of rubble. 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