1 seriously injured, multiple homes damaged in large fire in Kensington, Brooklyn
NEW YORK - One person was seriously injured as a fire tore through two homes in Brooklyn on Friday.
The fire broke out in the rear of a three-story home on East Third Street between Avenue C and Beverly Road in the Kensington neighborhood just before 5:45 p.m.
"I saw the fire department. They were looking inside and they were breaking the house's, like, the fence and everything just to, I guess, have access inside and to see if anyone was inside there," one neighbor said.
"I seen so much smoke and it was just, it was surreal. I got worried," neighbor Ismail Sekic said.
FDNY officials say high winds and the building's wood frame contributed to the fast spread of the fire. Flames climbed into the second floor and attic.
"Our members moved in very aggressively, very deliberately with multiple hand lines and we were able to find one victim on the first floor," FDNY Chief Kevin Woods said.
The woman was taken to a local hospital in serious condition. An EMS official said she would likely be moved to a burn center.
Fire officials say flames also extended into a neighboring wood-frame home and spread into all three floors, including the cellar.
Watch: FDNY provides update on multi-home fire in Kensington, Brooklyn
Fire officials say the second building that caught fire had solar panels on the roof, which later suffered a partial collapse.
"Those solar panels, obviously good for clean energy, but really complicate operations. If you can imagine how difficult it is already when you're operating on a roof and you're trying to get to fire that, in this case, was in the attic ... the solar panel complicates that. In this case, it also collapsed," FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said. "It's quite difficult and it requires sometimes additional tools to get through those panels and actually get to where the fire is at so that we can put it out."
Fire crews were pulled out of one of the buildings due to structural instability.
There were initial reports that a third home had sustained damage, but fire officials say they were able to prevent flames from spreading to any adjacent buildings.
Over 100 firefighters and emergency responders were called to the scene.
"This was a very difficult operation and it is thanks to the hard work of our members, EMS and fire together, that we did not see damage to the additional adjacent buildings and that we don't have more patients tonight. So there really was incredible work in very difficult conditions getting colder ... and the wind has picked up," Kavanagh said.
It took crews hours to get the fire under control. No firefighters were injured.
The Red Cross was on the scene. It's unknown at this time how many people have been displaced, but neighbors vowed to help.
"We're a tight community here, and we just hope everybody's alright," Sekic said.
Fire marshals were also on the scene to investigate the cause of the fire.