An all-hands fire burned through multiple buildings and left several homes and businesses damaged in Brownsville on Wednesday morning.
The fire broke out in a deli on Newport Street between Saratoga Avenue and East 98th Street just before 10:30 a.m., according to the FDNY. Smoke and flames quickly spread to the buildings beside the deli and threatened the apartments above it.
Some sixty firefighters were called in to battle the blaze, and were able to bring the fire under control by 11:17 a.m. One resident was injured, per the FDNY, but refused medical attention on the scene.
The fire left at least three businesses charred and smoking, and shattered the large glass windows of the deli and a neighboring barbershop.
Firefighters requested a structural inspection of a 900 Saratoga Ave., two-story building at the corner of Newport Street that was damaged by the blaze, records show, and reported an illegal apartment without a proper exit in the basement of the building.
“They’ve been trying to burn us out of these buildings for some time,” one resident told Brooklyn Paper. “They want us out to grow the neighborhood.”
The FDNY’s fire marshal will investigate the cause of the fire.
City records show that both 9 Newport St., where the fire is believed to have begun, and 900 Saratoga Ave. have amassed dozens of Department of Buildings and Department of Housing Preservation and Development violations.
In 2012, a fire destroyed 9 Newport St., a two-story mixed use building with four residential units, according to HPD records. At the time, DOB issued a full vacate order due to “extensive fire damage.” The order wasn’t lifted until 2022.
