NYC fire leaves 16 hurt, including baby, as firefighters confront biggest challenge in apartment building

Sixteen people were hurt – including two children, one only 5 months old – when an early Wednesday blaze ripped through a Brooklyn apartment building, officials said. The fire erupted around 6:15 a.m.on the second floor of the building on Bay 19th Street near 86th Street in Bath Beach, the FDNY said.“[We found] very heavy fire on arrival,” FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Joseph Duggan, Jr., the Brooklyn borough commander, told reporters.

“The firefighters were confronted with the biggest challenge we always have, and that’s the fire door.The apartment door was left open.”The open door allowed the blaze to spread up to the third floor, where firefighters rescued two young boys – a 5-month-old and a 5-year-old, in addition to a 42-year-old man, according to fire and police officials. The children were taken to Maimonides Medical Center, and the man to Coney Island Hospital, cops said. The FDNY initially said the injured were listed in critical condition, but the NYPD later described them as stable. The two-alarm fire drew 106 firefighters and 25 medical personnel to the scene – and the heavy flames proved a challenge for responders, who initially struggled to determine where the blaze began. “The firefighters got to the second floor, they had trouble identifying the fire apartment because of the heavy, small condition and the high heat,” Duggan said. “Very quickly, the Division Chief identified the problem that we couldn’t get into the fire apartment because of the fire condition,” he added.

“He took an alternate attack.We put a fire hose up the exterior of the building and went in through an outside window.”Six firefighters were hospitalized with minor injuries as they battled the flames, and seven more civilians were treated on scene but did not need to be hospitalized, the FDNY said. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation by fire marshals. ...