A four-alarm fire gutted a vacant building at Washington Avenue and St. Johns Place in Prospect Heights this morning before being brought under control. The fire started around 2 a.m. inside 816 Washington Avenue and quickly spread out, injuring several firefighters in the process.
The building where the fire began was empty except for a deli, which was evacuated safely, Fire officials say. Unfortunately the blaze expanded quickly and moved into neighboring buildings. Before it was brought under control, the fire caused a wall collapse which sent a brick flying directly into the face of a fireman. Six other firefighters suffered minor injuries.
As the fire raged—it took three hours to get under control—the FDNY evacuated neighboring buildings. "They were banging and ringing our bells to let everybody on the block know to get out of their house, you know, so we came out and we seen all of this fire and everything, we don't know how it got started, or what happened. We were just woken up in the middle of the night," said one resident.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
