"This building is a very large, four-story commercial building. Upon arrival, we had heavy fire on the second, third, fourth floor and through the roof."
"Due to the amount of fire and the structural stability of the building, we removed all members and attacked the fire from the exterior."
"This type of construction is called heavy timber. It's all wood, heavy, heavy timber, minimum 8 x 8 columns and girders. So once these structural members start going, the fire takes over rather quickly."
"We had extensive damage to this building. We had the roof collapse, and we also had the fourth floor collapse. So we will have structural engineers evaluate that."
A massive fire erupted around 11:35 p.m. at 481 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn, producing flames visible miles away. The blaze involved the second through fourth floors and extended through the roof of a four-story commercial building built in the 1870s. Firefighters escalated the response from two alarms to five, deploying over 250 personnel and a marine unit due to the building's waterfront location. The heavy-timber structure experienced roof and fourth-floor collapse, prompting a structural evaluation. The building reportedly held artwork for an upcoming show, with possible losses. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries; the cause remains under investigation.
Read at Cbsnews
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