Stubborn Blaze Tears Through Brooklyn Heights Building
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Firefighters battled a stubborn blaze in Brooklyn Friday morning.
One firefighter was trapped in the process.
Chopper 2 was over the scene of the fire in Brooklyn Heights.
It erupted in an apartment building on Montague Street, and grew to five alarms.
As CBS2's Kiran Dhillon reports, flames shot out the roof and windows of the mixed use building around 6 a.m. Friday.
Crews @FDNY put out a 4 alarm fire in #BrooklynHeights @CBSNewYork #fire #nyc #brooklyn pic.twitter.com/UcFJtjVYQP
— Kiran Dhillon (@KiranDhillonTV) December 10, 2021
Hundreds of firefighters rushed to douse the flames.
Concerned neighbors gathered to watch their efforts.
"The flames were coming out. They were very big," said neighbor Max Ma. "Smoke. A lot of smoke."
When crews arrived, they found the fire on the second floor of the building at the corner of Montague and Henry streets had quickly spread upwards.
The building, along with the two on either side, were quickly evacuated.
"A woman upstairs smelled smoke and she knocked on my door and I left the building," a man named Thomas said. "There were flames coming out of the top of the roof."
As crews aggressively attacked the fire, one firefighter became trapped.
#NYPD Aviation provides aerial reconnaissance for the @FDNY as they battle a 4 alarm fire in Brooklyn. Please avoid the are in the vicinity of Montague Street & Henry Street until fire activity is completed. pic.twitter.com/91SKy011Cw
— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) December 10, 2021
Several others rushed to save their teammate.
"The firefighters were operating under extreme fire conditions. A few of them got relatively burned," said FDNY Chief of Operations John Hodgens. "It's extremely difficult emotional and nerve wrecking situation, but we're trained to do it and we had a special response come in who trains to do this all the time, and we were able to safely remove everybody."
Four firefighters, including the one who had been trapped, suffered minor injuries. Two people who live in the building where the fire started have now been displaced.
"It's a tough time of year for a fire like this. We have a lot of businesses on the block and we wish everyone well, but thank God there were no injuries to civilians," Hodgens said.
The Red Cross is now helping the two displaced people find shelter.
Firefighters had to put out hot spots for hours.
Meantime the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
CBS2's Kiran Dhillon contributed to this report.