Five firefighters were injured in a four-alarm fire Tuesday morning at a lumber yard in Brooklyn, New York City.
The fire started at a lumber storage warehouse at 304 Hewes Street, in Williamsburg, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, according to the New York City Fire Department (FDNY).
The FDNY said a call came in about the fire at 10:51 a.m.
The fire had initially started as a two-alarm fire but was later determined to be a four-alarm fire—a particularly intense fire.
“When units arrived, they found fire in a large commercial building containing a lot of lumber. The fire spread to an adjacent 3-story building, There is no report of [civilian] injuries,” the department stated in a Twitter post. Accompanying video showed ample smoke rising quickly out of multiple windows in a three-story building.
There were no occupants in the building, reported WABC.
“Fire started in one-story lumber storage building next to three-story commercial building. There are 5 [firefighters] with minor injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation,” the FDNY stated in a separate post.
It added that there were 200 Fire and EMS personnel on the scene.
Accompanying video showed that visibility was greatly compromised by the large amount of smoke on the scene.
FDNY Chief of Department John Hodgens said in a statement on Instagram the one-story lumber storage warehouse is “interconnected” with the three-story commercial building. He added that there was “a lot of stock” and a “heavy load of combustibles” within the buildings which made efforts to extinguish the fire more difficult.
The fire was brought under control after 5 p.m., reported NBC New York, which meant that firefighters spent about 6 hours putting out the blaze.
More photos and video were shared on Twitter by FDNY showing the activities of the firefighters on the scene.
The FDNY said its EMTs, Paramedics, and Rescue Paramedics were “onsite to provide medical care” on the scene to the five firefighters, who suffered minor injuries. The five were later transported to Wyckoff Hospital.
Video shared by another Twitter account showed thick black smoke could be seen from afar, emerging out of the building, rising to a high level, creating a massive smoke cloud that dispersed outward to engulf other surrounding buildings in the neighborhood.
