Reports today that there was a huge fire at the Greenpoint Terminal. Sounds fishy - a fire that smoldered all day and erupted into a ten alarm blaze, sweeping through the abandoned building. A building that had recently been listsed and where development/demolition seemed to be underway.
Used to be "the American Manufacturing Company". LICNYC once had a taxi driver who was retired from his job there -- when they moved the jobs to Mexico. He didn't want to move. So he became a taxi driver. Had once made light bulbs, apparently. The old New York.
The fire itself, from photoblogger Randy Plemel
Enterprising photographers had snuck in and documented the place over time. Have a look:
Hope Tunnel
Hogger
On Flickr
The Daily News story:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/414371p-350199c.html
BY KERRY BURKE and TONY SCLAFANI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
The largest city fire in more than a decade - a raging inferno believed to be intentionally lit - devoured 15 vacant buildings on Brooklyn's waterfront yesterday, sending plumes of black smoke across the city.
"It was nothing but flames. Balls of fire were shooting out of the building," said Bradley Murphy, 17. "The whole thing is terrifying."
Hundreds of firefighters battled the monstrous 10-alarm blaze by land and river for more than 11 hours as rolling flames ravaged the old Greenpoint Terminal Market - a historic site already designated for demolition against the wishes of preservationists fighting luxury riverside development plans.
Evoking gut-wrenching memories of 9/11, neighbors felt the intense heat several blocks from the blaze. Billows of acrid smoke could be seen as far as Long Island.
"The heat got so intense you can't get next to the buildings," said FDNY Battalion Chief John Postel. "We have to work at a distance."
The fire was spotted at 5:40 a.m. and rapidly grew. Nearly eight hours later, with the flames still out of control, fire officials declared a 10-alarm blaze in the complex, which was once the site of shipbuilding and other manufacturing.
Fueled by strong, westerly winds, the fire swept through 15 buildings over 6 square blocks along the Greenpoint waterfront on West St. Sudden collapses of walls and ceilings sent piles of broken bricks, concrete and wood tumbling into the streets.
"I could feel the heat from the fire 300 yards away," said Joseph Mrawcz, 65. "Everybody was scared. It was the same thing as 9/11. You feel that way."
The fire was the city's biggest - not including the World Trade Center attacks - since a 19-alarm fire at Brooklyn's St. George Hotel in 1995. The 9/11 attacks were so large that the FDNY quit counting alarms.
More than 400 firefighters were forced to fight yesterday's blaze from the perimeter of the warehouses, using nine tower ladders and five boats in the river, dumping about 6 million gallons of water on the inferno.
Fourteen firefighters suffered minor injuries but no civilians were hurt.
Fire marshals found accelerant poured in five separate spots in the back of the 21-acre site, sources said. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said the blaze was being probed as arson.
"The buildings were fully involved with fire when the first units arrived," Scoppetta said. "That plus the fact that it started early in the morning are indications of a suspicious fire."
The owner of the warehouses had proposed razing the buildings and turning the property into a 2.6-million-square-foot waterfront development, featuring residential and commercial towers and a public park.
Elaborate drawings by the architectural firm Perkins Eastman show five towers rising above the East River. The landlord has had permits for the demolition since 2001.
But this year, the Municipal Art Society sent a request to City Hall asking that the warehouses be designated a landmark, which would prevent their demolition.
The Preservation League of New York State also had named the industrial architecture of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, including the warehouses, as one of its seven sites to save.
"I'm heartbroken," said Municipal Art Society preservationist Lisa Kersavage. "Brooklyn has lost an important part of its industrial heritage today."
The 21 acres - once home to the city's fifth-largest employer, American Manufacturing Company - are owned by six companies controlled by real estate bigwig Joshua Guttman and his son Jack Guttman.
"I've been through a lot today. We have no comment," the younger Guttman said.
Joshua Guttman's attorney, Joseph Kosofsky, scoffed at any suggestion the real estate honcho had something to do with the fire.
"Ridiculous," Kosofsky said. "He is a man of substance. It doesn't make sense for a man of his stature to do something like that."
The Guttmans keep a night watchman at the Greenpoint site but FDNY sources said the guard left at 2 a.m. yesterday.
In 2004, Joshua Guttman tried to have another Brooklyn building rezoned for luxury housing. He withdrew his application after the community board said it would not approve the plan.
The Water St. building burned down less than two weeks later. Though arson had been suspected, no one was ever charged. Kosofsky said the case was closed.
The Greenpoint fire was expected to burn two more days - and smolder much longer.
"It's a complex of 15 buildings," FDNY Assistant Chief Edward Kilduff said. "They're all gone."
With Dorian Block, Alison Gendar and Jotham Sederstrom
