Crews battle high-rise fire in Midtown
NEW YORK -- Crews battled a high-rise fire in Midtown on Friday.
It started about 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Avenue and West 35th Street.
Firefighters say the fire started on the third floor and grew to two alarms.
The assistant fire chief says smoke was coming down the building, causing heavy smoke conditions on the street.
"It was almost like a reverse draft, a reverse stack effect. It's usually climactic. It's a pretty warm night for this time of the year, and a lot of times instead of smoke and the products of combustion going upward, they actually come downward and push out the front of the building, which complicated things a bit," FDNY Assistant Chief Tony Currao said.
The building was mostly vacant and nobody was inside at the time of the fire.
Part of Eighth Avenue was shut down as crews got the fire under control.
One firefighter suffered a medical condition and is being monitored at a local hospital.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
