NYPD warehouse fire destroys evidence
Giant flames and plumes of thick black smoke encompassed most of an 8,000-square-foot storage warehouse in Red Hook for most of a bitter cold day. The FDNY used fireboats to saturate the warehouse and get some kind of control of the towering inferno.
NEW YORK – A huge fire tore through a waterfront warehouse in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning that the NYPD uses as an auto pound and storage for DNA evidence from crime scenes.
At least eight people suffered minor injuries, officials said.
The Erie Basin Auto Pound warehouse is located on Columbia St. in Red Hook. The NYPD said that a vehicle somehow caught on fire and the flames spread.
The fire destroyed decades of biological evidence and vehicles involved in old crimes, a source told Fox 5 News.
At least three fireboats were pouring water onto the building. Flames were coming out of the roof and smoke was visible for miles. The smoke blew south towards the Sunset Park neighborhood.
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A fire burned at an NYPD warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The Erie Basin Auto Pound warehouse stores cars, e-bikes and motor scooters as well as DNA evidence from crime scenes. The fire was expected to last for several days, the FDNY said.
The first call came in to the FDNY just after 10:30 a.m. The fire was still burning Tuesday night and might take days to bring under control, FDNY Chief of Department John Hodgens said.
The fire went to three alarms with 33 units and 140 firefighters at the scene.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) sent a team to help in the investigation.
The facility had been running on generators since losing power during Superstorm Sandy more than a decade ago, a source said. Contractors have been converting the facility back to on-site electric power but nothing points to that being a cause of the fire. Red Hook fire
A waterfront warehouse is burning along the Brooklyn waterfront.