200 Firefighters Have Spent 10 Hours Battling NYC Warehouse Blaze

Hundreds of firefighters face 7-alarm fire burning official papers
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 31, 2015 5:15 PM CST

A fire took hold at a Brooklyn warehouse at 6:20 this morning, and as of late afternoon, the seven-alarm blaze is still going strong, the New York Times reports. Smoke can be seen from outside the city. Some 200 firefighters have been at the scene; none have been injured in the lengthy effort. But the contents of the warehouse—loads of New York City records—might not have fared so well. The company in charge of the facility, CitiStorage, hosts some four million boxes of records on hospitals, courts, and children's services in two warehouses, the New York Daily News reports.

To make matters worse, the firefighters are dealing with terrible cold. “They’re extremely, extremely exposed,” says the department chief. “The cold can be painful; it’s going to hurt you.” The conditions are as bad for the firefighters as they are good for the fire, he tells the Times. Teams will likely be needed in the area for weeks. The fire comes after an earlier small blaze at the same building, which firefighters were able to put out quickly. The causes of both fires are under investigation, the Times notes. (More Brooklyn stories.)

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