Massive fire breaks out at NYPD impound, evidence warehouse in Brooklyn
Story by WABC • 1h ago
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A massive fire broke out at an NYPD impound and evidence storage warehouse in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning.
IS RAGING OUT OF CONTROL.
IT HAS BEEN RAGING OUT OF
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Fire breaks out at NYPD warehouse
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Massive fire at NYPD evidence storage facility/0:50
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The fire appears to have started at an 8,000 square-foot warehouse on Columbia Street in Red Hook that is part of the Erie Basin Marine Pound.
Plumes of thick, black smoke billowed into the sky as scores of firefighters poured water on the warehouse from every direction.
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At one point, an explosion triggered a partial collapse of the building and units were forced to back out.
As crews use drones and boats to work to put out the fire, officials say it's possible it could still burn for days before it's fully extinguished.
Officials with the FDNY said at least eight people were injured, but they were all believed to be minor injuries. That included three firefighters, three with EMS and two civilians.
The severity of the damage to the warehouse is not yet known, but once it is safe, investigators will determine the cause of the fire and survey the extent of the damage.
NYPD officials said cold-case evidence stored at the warehouse goes back years but the magnitude of what was destroyed is not yet known.
"DNA, things from past crimes, burglaries, you know, maybe shooting incidents, we have some biological evidence as well," said NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey.
Authorities emphasized that rape kit evidence is stored elsewhere and was not lost in the fire.
The building is one of five warehouses where the NYPD stores vehicles that are confiscated. They also use the warehouse to store evidence that is too large to fit in normal storage areas.
Some of the vehicles being stored in the warehouse include ATVs and electric bikes, but the NYPD takes special precautions to detach the lithium-ion batteries so they don't catch fire. The NYPD hosted a demolition of ATVs and dirt bikes at this location back in 2016.
There are also thousands of NYPD vehicles parked on the connecting pier.
There were 15 NYPD employees on the property at the time the fire broke out, but they all escaped.
"It's a very serious and damaging fire," Maddrey said. "We won't really know the magnitude of what was destroyed in there until we have an opportunity to look at the invoice and see what was in there and then see what we can salvage and then we'll go from there."
he gon get Epsteined.
