Heavy black smoke and flames poured from the roof of a Brooklyn building on Tuesday afternoon, sending a large contingent of firefighters rushing to the Clinton Hill neighborhood. Video captured at the scene showed thick smoke billowing above the rooftop, a dramatic sight that drew crowds and first responders to a busy commercial stretch before crews managed to bring the fire under control.
The fire broke out at 490 Myrtle Avenue, on the block between Ryerson and Hall streets. It is a building well known to the neighborhood, a mixed use structure with a Key Food supermarket occupying the ground floor and six floors of apartments stacked above it. That combination of a busy store below and residences above raised the stakes as the flames took hold at the top of the building.
Despite the alarming appearance of the smoke, firefighters were able to keep the blaze from spreading through the rest of the structure. Fire officials said the fire was contained to the roof of the building, stopping it from tearing down into the apartment floors and the supermarket below, where far more people and property would have been at risk.
The response was substantial. The Fire Department said roughly 120 fire and EMS personnel were sent to the scene shortly after 2:30 in the afternoon, a large deployment reflecting both the visible intensity of the fire and the size of the mixed use building. Firefighters worked to attack the flames from the roof and to check that they had not extended into the floors below.
The timing added an extra challenge for the crews. Officials said the day's extreme heat played a role in the operation, noting that hot weather slows responses because it takes more time to get personnel into position and because commanders build in extra time to keep firefighters safe from heat related strain during a demanding job.
For the people who live and shop in the building, the outcome was about as good as it could have been. The Fire Department said no one was hurt in the fire, and once the situation was under control, tenants were allowed back into the building. What had briefly looked like a major emergency ended without injuries reported.
With the flames knocked down, attention turned to what sparked them. Fire officials said the cause of the fire remains under investigation. By the evening, the scene along Myrtle Avenue had largely returned to normal, with the earlier crush of first responders gone and daily life resuming around the supermarket and the apartments above it.