After Fire, Lincoln Postal Owner Cheered by Customers and Merchants

The owner of  hopes to open the mailing store this afternoon after a fire on Wednesday shut its doors.

The fire at 463 Lincoln Place broke out just before 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 1, an FDNY spokesman said.

“I was in the store and some of the kids in the neighborhood came in. And they were like, ‘Hey mister there’s some smoke coming out of the building,’” said Dean Desir, Lincoln Postal’s owner.

Desir said he did smell something, but it was more like incense than fire. He went outside and saw “plumes of it emanating out of the façade of the store.”

Nobody was injured in the blaze. Nor was anyone left homeless —the two-story brick building just off the corner of Classon has an unrented apartment on the second floor—but the store received quite a bit of damage from the water and from firefighters chopping through walls to get to the flames, Desir said.

The damage was upsetting, but Desir was cheered by business owners who stopped by to offer support and customers who came to mail packages and said they would return the next day instead of going elsewhere.

“I always say, 'This is what I’m doing for the neighborhood. This is what I’m doing for my customers.' But low and behold my customers were doing something for me,” he said.

“When the firemen were chopping stuff up, I felt lower than low,” he added. “But the customers, they’ll prop you up.”