A serious fire broke out once again in the vicinity of 5307 to 5311 Hamilton Avenue in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park on Sunday afternoon (April 12), less than five days after a three-alarm fire destroyed a Chinese-owned hardware store at 6007 Hamilton Avenue last Tuesday night, drawing attention from the local Chinese community.
According to Assistant Fire Chief Meyers of the New York City Fire Department, the fire department received a call at 1:45 pm on the day of the incident, reporting heavy smoke billowing from a building on Hamilton Avenue. The fire department quickly responded, mobilizing 46 fire units and over 140 firefighters and emergency personnel to the scene. In total, about 92 fire and rescue vehicles and over 200 firefighters were involved in the rescue efforts.
Firefighters arrived at the scene approximately three and a half minutes after receiving the call and immediately broke into the burning building to extinguish the flames. Initial suspicions pointed to the fire originating from a nearby electric bicycle shop warehouse, but it was confirmed that the fire actually started from a large inventory of clothing in the adjoining store. The fire quickly spread, igniting from the floor upwards, eventually burning through the entire building and spreading to the roof, prompting the fire department to escalate the fire to a three-alarm level.
During the rescue operation, firefighters set up as many as five water hoses and used aerial ladders to suppress the flames from above. After a series of efforts, the fire was successfully contained within the burning building and did not spread to adjacent shops. Fire officials described the prevention of the fire from spreading in a high-density commercial area, especially without affecting the neighboring electric bike shop, as a “victory” for the fire department.
In terms of casualties, there were no civilian injuries reported in the incident, with only one firefighter being sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation, but in stable condition. Deputy Assistant Fire Chief Cacciola stated that the fire has been completely extinguished, and firefighters are continuing to clean up the site, removing a large amount of merchandise and dealing with the ashes, remarking, “There were a lot of goods inside, so they all had to be moved out.”
As for the cause of the fire, the fire department has yet to determine it and has handed over the investigation to relevant units for further follow-up, preliminarily ruling out any connection to electric motorcycles or lithium batteries.
The fire incident led to the temporary closure of several streets in the area, causing severe traffic congestion on Hamilton Avenue. As of Sunday evening, some sections of the road were still under control, requiring vehicles to take detours.
It was noted that the fire last Tuesday was exacerbated by the large amount of items stored inside the building, fueling the rapid expansion of the fire and complicating the rescue efforts. Similarly, this fire involved a significant amount of merchandise catching fire and spreading rapidly, sharing some similarities with the previous incident. In just a span of a few days, three three-alarm fires occurred consecutively on the same road, further highlighting the importance of storage and fire management within commercial buildings.