A MASSIVE FIRE THAT ENGULFED A WAREHOUSE NEAR THE WATERFRONT IN WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN, CONTINUED TO BURN ON SUNDAY, MORE THAN A DAY AFTER THE BLAZE BEGAN.

 

A MASSIVE FIRE THAT ENGULFED A WAREHOUSE NEAR THE WATERFRONT IN WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN, CONTINUED TO BURN ON SUNDAY, MORE THAN A DAY AFTER THE BLAZE BEGAN.

 February 1, 2015

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY

A massive fire that engulfed a warehouse near the waterfront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, continued to burn on Sunday, more than a day after the blaze began.

Firefighters were still working to put out the fire, which had sent soaring flames and choking clouds of smoke into the air along the East River.

The city’s Department of Health recommended on Saturday night that residents who live near the warehouse or downwind of the smoke remain indoors with their windows closed to limit smoke exposure.

“If anyone in the immediate area experiences shortness of breath, chest pains, or a worsening medical condition such as asthma, they should seek immediate medical attention," the department said in an alert.

The fire has affected the air quality, but significant health problems for those who are healthy is not very likely, the alert said, noting that seniors, children and those with respiratory conditions may experience difficulty breathing.

The fire, which reached seven alarms, began around 6:20 a.m. on Saturday at the CitiStorage building at 5 North 11th Street, near Kent Avenue, a facility that houses court files, hospital records and social service documents.

 

Smoke continued to billow from a seven-alarm fire in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, late Saturday afternoon. The fire, which started around 6:20 AM Saturday, engulfed a warehouse housing official documents.  

 

The cause of the fire has not been determined. 

Firefighters were called to the warehouse around 4:30 a.m. for a smaller fire and found that it had been contained by the building's sprinkler system. They then shut down the sprinkler system to prevent further water damage, a concern when dealing with paper records, and to allow the building’s staff to replace the sprinkler heads, said Francis X. Gribbon, the department’s chief spokesman.


“This is standard operating procedure,” he said. “We respond to make sure the fire is out. At that point, we turn the facility over.” There were building employees there when the firefighters left, he said.

But a little over an hour later, a new emergency call came in and firefighters returned.

“When they came back it was second alarm on arrival,” Mr. Gribbon said, meaning the blaze was large enough to require several units and scores of firefighters. About 275 firefighters were on the scene on Saturday night, and units had been switching out about every three hours.

Fire marshals on Sunday were investigating several questions that remained unanswered: whether the original fire had “rekindled” or whether a second fire had erupted elsewhere in the building soon after the first, and if the fire had been deliberately set or was sparked accidentally, perhaps by faulty wiring.

It was not immediately clear whether the sprinkler heads had been replaced before the building was engulfed again. “The sprinkler system was off; it had been turned off after the first fire,” Mr. Gribbon said.

Fire marshals on Sunday were interviewing the building’s workers who were present, attempting to figure out where the fires began. On Sunday morning, a fire department boat blasted water from the East River onto the warehouse. Piles of soggy documents lined the waterfront.

No firefighters were injured in the blaze, fire officials said on Sunday. One neighborhood resident was treated at the scene for slight smoke inhalation, Chief of Department James E. Leonard said on Saturday.

Chief Leonard said stiff winds fed the flames, while ice formed around fire hydrants and pump trucks on Saturday. Fire crews were likely to be on the scene for weeks, he added.

“This is going to smolder for quite some time,” Chief Leonard said.

Volunteers from the American Red Cross were also at the scene providing firefighters with meals, hot beverages and hand warmers, the group said in a statement.

The warehouse, which occupies nearly half a square block, houses records from the state court system, the city Administration for Children’s Services, the city Health and Hospitals Corporation, and members of the Greater New York Hospital Association, among others.

The city's child welfare agency said it had been in the process of removing its files from the building. “We are currently working to assess the number and type of files that may have been impacted by this massive fire,” the department said in a statement.

A spokesman for the state court system said that it, too, had been in the process of transferring its records out of the building. The city hospital agency said in a statement that it had electronic versions of patient records stored in the warehouse and added, “We do not anticipate this will affect our operations.”

Along the wind-whipped waterfront, slips of charred paper swirled through the air, and people grabbed handfuls of documents strewn near the shoreline. One man picked up a scrap of paper documenting a urine sample. “Patient given specimen cup,” it read. Passers-by held scarves over their mouths to filter out the pungent smoke.