A massive fire ripped through a Brooklyn supermarket Wednesday evening, injuring seven people and displacing around 30 residents, then quickly spread to four nearby apartment buildings.
The fire started shortly before 6 p.m. inside Christa’s Kitchen & Market on Bushwick Avenue in Bushwick and grew to at least five alarms with more than 250 smoke eaters responding, FDNY officials said on the spot.
The seven injured all suffered minor injuries and included six firefighters – five of whom were transported to local hospitals – and one civilian who was being treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
“This fire has impacted this community, not only the supermarket that they use, but also the residents of this community in four different buildings,” FDNY First Deputy Commissioner Joseph Pfeifer told reporters at the scene. “And our hearts go out to these residents. »
The flames – described as “a very large fire” by FDNY officials – started in the grocery store and quickly engulfed two adjacent buildings to its left and at least two buildings behind it on Cooper Street.
Despite the arrival of the first firefighters three minutes after the 911 call, the adjoining buildings, older and made of wooden structures, exploded like a match.
“We were really trying to get ahead of this,” Deputy Chief Thomas Currao said. “That’s really one of the challenges of timber frame construction.”
As department officials spoke, fire trucks were still throwing water on the blackened and burned storefront behind them.
“He’ll be on stage for quite a while,” Currao said. “We will set up a monitoring line (to make sure) this fire is completely extinguished.”
Red Cross personnel also intervened and provided assistance to the 30 residents left homeless by the fire and smoke.
“(We) rounded up everyone we could muster to organize buses to take them to a reception center where we will welcome our clients and find them housing,” Croix staff member Eric Declercq told the Post -Red.
They distributed blankets and bottles of water to affected tenants.
A displaced resident named Mark was left speechless as the inferno devastated his home.
“My house is on fire, it’s sizzling,” he told the Post. “What do you want me to say?”
He said about 15 people lived in his building.
Another woman named Kat said her grandmother lived in one of the burned buildings, but was fortunately not home when the fire broke out.
“We came to see the damage. The damage was done,” she said.
The smoke obscured the sky and was visible for about a mile. Some residents who gathered near the scene to see what was happening said they saw it on their way to work.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Will, a 22-year-old restaurant waiter who saw the flames from the J train above ground.
It is unclear what exactly started the fire. Firefighters will investigate to determine the cause.
New York Post
