On Sunday morning, a massive fire broke out at a storefront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn inside a one-story commercial building at Lee Avenue and Williamsburg Street.
The tenants included “a discount store, a shoe store, a chocolate store, a kosher restaurant, a bridal store, an optician and an exterminator.”
A total of 168 firefighters responded to the 911 call from the area late this morning at about 11.56am to battle the blaze.
🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Multiple Buildings in New York City Burst Out in Flames 🚨
⚠️ WE ARE UNDER ATTACK ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/SN2Zp90mzb
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) August 20, 2023
According to reports from FNTV, seven firefighters were injured while trying to put out the blaze with one in critical condition.
At an afternoon press conference held by the New York City Fire Department it was updated that there were 10 total patients transported: “one red tag, one orange tag, one yellow tag and five green tag firefighters and one member of EMS.”
All ten are currently stable but FDNY Chief of Department John Hodgens noted that nine stores were involved in the fire and most of them were locked up so it took time for firefighters to get into them once they arrived on scene.
He added that over 200 fire and EMS personnel had been on the site during five-alarm fire before it was brought under control.
Brooklyn, New York
Huge Fire Rages in Brooklyn's Williamsburg Area, Multiple Stores Burnt Down to Ashes.
— M9.NEWS (@M9Breaking) August 20, 2023
It has been just over a month since two firefighters in New Jersey were killed after responding to an intense blaze aboard Grande Costa D’Avorio –-a shipping container vessel owned by Grimaldi Group–at Port Newark per The New York Times.
Multiple cars ignited on floors eleven and twelve causing smoke billowing from the ship visible for miles around prompting haunting Mayday calls issued over police scanners as first responders rushed to assist before two members of FDNY perished according to Chief Rufus Jackson who spoke with WABC affiliate ABC7 News.
