FDNY firefighters in the Bronx were dispatched to East 179th Street and Monterey for a building on fire. Ladder 27 reported a fire in a commercial warehouse and, soon after, reported water issues as heavy smoke pushed from the large 75- x 100-foot building. Ten minutes after arriving, a second alarm was struck as crews found fire inside the cockloft of the building and command transitioned the incident from an interior operation to a defensive exterior operation. Multiple tower ladders and big lines were put into operation to darken down the fire. Con Ed was called due to the potential exposure problem to a large substation in the rear of the fire building. Fire continued through the roof as companies worked to hit stubborn pockets of fire before they were moved back from the building as propane tanks freely rolled across the roof. Tower ladders continued to hit the fire as portions of the roof collapsed. The FDNY used multiple drones to help get aerial view to command to give a better view of the scene and to help fight the fire. The fire was brought under control just before 2100. A 36-year-old Brooklyn man was arrested a few days later in connection to the fire which was determined to have started from propane tanks left on the building’s roof which were deliberately ignited causing the fire that left five firefighters injured.
– Fire News photos by PuckStopperPhotography.com, Lloyd Mitchell, FirstOnScenePhotos.com and Dave Kempter
