NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A lightning strike sparked a massive fire that broke out in a residential building in the Prospect-Lefferts Gardens section of Flatbush Thursday morning. A lighting strike hit 456 Brooklyn Ave. at 9:47 a.m. and the 7-story building on New York Avenue caught fire at 10:08 a.m., according to the FDNY.
NEW YORK (AP) — A roaring fire engulfed the upper floors of an apartment building on Thursday, injuring dozens of firefighters and forcing more than 100 families to leave.
Hundreds of firefighters battled the flames, which erupted Thursday morning on a top floor of the seven-story building in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood and soon broke through the roof, the fire department said. Hours later, orange flames and dark, billowing smoke were still visible at the 106-unit building.
Authorities said 26 firefighters were hurt, one seriously, and one civilian was treated at the scene.
The fire was extinguished by mid afternoon. The cause of the fire was under investigation, but there was a report of a lightning strike just blocks away around the same time.
Resident Valma Brown heard a neighbor knocking on her second-floor door, telling her the building was burning. She said she grabbed a robe and threw it over her night clothes, then rushed into a smoke-filled hallway with four adults and two young boys.
"We walked through smoke. There was a lot of smoke, and everything was flying all over," she said, explaining that firefighters were breaking windows to get in. "The whole building was full of water."
The group then made its way through a back door downstairs to a patio.
The Red Cross set up a temporary shelter for displaced residents at a nearby public school.
Another resident, Shondelle Rodney, said she rushed home from work when a friend called her saying the building was on fire. Her older sister was still asleep in the family's fifth-floor apartment.
"She didn't hear anything, so we called her," Rodney said.
The sister got out, taking along their dog and cat, she said, "but the bird is still up there."
The other residents of the apartment — another sister, their mother and two children — were not home when the fire started.
The family planned to spend the night at the school. Rodney didn't know when they'd be able to return.
(The usual disclaimers: I am not a journalist; This is a blog that expresses an outlook and is not conclusive in any shape or manner.)
