Flames Burst From Burning Tire Shop In East Flatbush; No Injuries, FDNY Says
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Flames and smoke filled the sky during a fire at a tire shop in Brooklyn early Friday morning.
The FDNY is still trying to figure out how the massive fire on Church Avenue at East 57th Street in East Flatbush started, CBS2's Jenna DeAngelis reported.
Cellphone video shows the blaze. Fire officials on the scene said racks of tires and debris were burning.
"It was very scary because the fire started at 2:30 and by 2:37, when I called 911, the fire was, it was like a tornado," said Valerie Darden, who worried the flames would reach the McDonald's where she was working.
A customer alerted her to the fire, Darden said.
"I was in the drive-thru, and the customer said, 'There's a fire.' I looked and I said, 'Sir, you can have your coffee, we're closed,' because I had to call 911. I didn't know what to do," she told DeAngelis.
Darden and her coworkers ran out to the street.
"I was scared for myself... I was running back... I felt the heat," she said.
Meanwhile, FDNY crews rushed to the scene and got the two-alarm fire under control in just over an hour.
"The fire was above the cords, then it started sparking, then all you heard was boom boom, the tires started falling," Darden said.
The FDNY said firefighters were successful in attempts to keep the fire from spreading to the neighboring business and residences behind the tire shop.
A car parked in front the shop was destroyed.
Neighbors passing by the scene were shocked.
"I go there with my car to fix my tire ... I pass here yesterday, taking the bus, and everything was fine," neighbor Dawn Thompson said.
A man who is believed to be the business owner did not want to go on camera. He spent the morning in disbelief walking around the scene with investigators.
"He comes every morning. He's so friendly. He tips the workers," Darden said.
The business was destroyed, but lives were spared; nobody was hurt.
An FDNY official on the scene said it does not appear to be a suspicious fire, but the cause is still unknown.