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Firefighters worked for over seven hours to extinguish a massive fire that broke out before 10 p.m. Monday night at a storage warehouse in Mott Haven where some 400 people were storing personal items, now completely destroyed by the fire.
"From household goods, personal effects, collections, art, pianos, photo albums, family albums, books, everything," said the building's owner Remi Ismirly.
The FDNY says the fire was being fed by a gas line making it difficult to control. Well over 200 firefighters were rotated over the course of the night as the fire continued to burn. Firefighters finally managed to get the blaze under control at around 5 a.m. Tuesday.
The building is owned by Metropolitan Security Storage LTD, which rents storage bins for personal items to about 400 people living in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Connecticut, primarily. Hostos Community College nearby was reportedly looking to buy the facility.
"Some of those clients are dear friends of mine, personal friends of mine," said Ismirly. "We got to know them through the company, we ended up developing a friendship and now it's just hard because everything is gone."
"I had some AC's, I had some baby clothes, a crib, some good stuff in there, I had some good furniture and it's all gone," said the facility's sales manager and customer Judy Tiran. "But we'll be fine and everybody will get what they're supposed to get."
More than 12 hours after the fire started, firefighters were still spraying it down with water. Five firefighters and one civilian were treated at Jacobi Medical Hospital for minor burns and smoke inhalation.
"When they got here they had a tremendous amount of fire in the warehouse, heavy fireload in the building," said FDNY deputy chief Michael Falotico. "It was a storage area. They had a couple trucks parked inside with diesel fuel in the fuel tanks. They had containers filled with all kinds of clothing and things you would store in a warehouse."
The company employs anywhere from 30 to 50 workers. Many of them showed up not knowing their workplace was gutted.
"I found out this morning and it really hurts my heart, it's the longest I ever worked and I was liking the job," said worker Vincent Milarson. "It's a good place to work."
"I used to work here for three years and now everything is gone," said worker Sebastin Rodriguez. "Let's see what happens."
Two workers who were inside the building when the fire started were able to save a couple trucks. The owner says he has insurance and will rebuild. He says all his workers will still have a job, but the hardest part will be telling his customers all the things they had in storage are gone.
"This is very personal, this is what is hurting me the most, I'm standing here looking at the building and it's hard for me, really hard," said Ismirly.
No word yet on what caused the fire.
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