Large Warehouse Fire Continues to Burn in Brooklyn

By EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS and NATE SCHWEBERFEB. 1, 2015

Plumes of smoke were still rising from the CitiStorage building at 5 North 11th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Sunday. CreditJoshua Bright for The New York Times

A seven-alarm fire that engulfed a warehouse near the waterfront in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, continued to burn on Sunday morning, more than a day after the blaze began.

Firefighters were still working early Sunday to put out the fire, officials said. On Sunday morning, television footage showed large plumes of smoke still rising from the charred warehouse.

About 275 firefighters were on the scene on Saturday night, and units have been switching out about every three hours.

The city’s Department of Health recommended on Saturday night that neighborhood residents remain indoors with their windows closed to limit their smoke exposure.

The fire began around 6:20 a.m. on Saturday at the CitiStorage building at 5 North 11th Street, near Kent Avenue, a facility that houses many official documents.

The fire continued to burn throughout the day Saturday, with flames consuming court files, hospital records and social service documents, and firefighters battling brutal cold and wind in addition to the blaze itself, Chief of Department James E. Leonard said.

“They’re extremely, extremely exposed,” he said on Saturday. “The cold can be painful, it’s going to hurt you.”

No firefighters were injured in the blaze, fire officials said on Sunday. Chief Leonard said on Saturday that one neighborhood resident was treated at the scene for slight smoke inhalation.

The weather conditions almost could not have been worse for firefighters, Chief Leonard said on Saturday. Stiff winds fed the flames, while ice formed around fire hydrants and pump trucks.

Chief Leonard said that fire crews were likely to be on the scene for weeks.

“This is going to smolder for quite some time,” he said.

Those that said they had records stored in the warehouse, which occupies nearly half a square block, included the state court system, the city Administration for Children’s Services, the city Health and Hospitals Corporation, and members of the Greater New York Hospital Association.

The city's child welfare agency said it had been in the process of removing its files from the building. “We are currently working to assess the number and type of files that may have been impacted by this massive fire,” the department said in a statement.

A spokesman for the state court system said that it, too, had been in the process of transferring its records out of the building. The city hospital agency said in a statement that it had electronic versions of patient records stored in the warehouse and added, “We do not anticipate this will affect our operations.”

Along the wind-whipped waterfront, slips of charred paper swirled through the air, and people grabbed handfuls of soggy documents strewn near the East River shoreline. One man picked up a scrap of paper documenting a urine sample. “Patient given specimen cup,” it read.

Firefighters were first called to a small fire at the warehouse around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday and — with the help of the building’s sprinkler system — doused it in 45 minutes, Chief Leonard said.

They were called back a little more than an hour later for a second fire that was so big by the time they arrived that they could not enter the building, he said.

It was unclear if the two fires were related. The causes of both were being investigated.

Passers-by held scarves over their mouths to filter out the pungent smoke.