A large warehouse containing 20 to 30 years of evidence collected by police is on fire in New York City, and the flames are expected to blaze for several more days, fire and police department officials said at a briefing.
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City Fire Department Chief John Hodgins said the call about a fire at a warehouse on the waterfront in Brooklyn came in around 10:37 a.m. According to him, three fire boats, drones and about 150 emergency workers are extinguishing the flames. So far, three firefighters, three ambulance workers, and two civilians have been injured, all with minor injuries.
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“This fire is likely to continue for several days until we can completely extinguish it and get inside to get to the deep areas,” Hodgins said.
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According to him, the warehouse building could collapse, so firefighters were forced to leave the building. In addition, there may be large volumes of combustible substances.
Much of the warehouse’s contents, given the scale of the blaze, are likely damaged, according to Hodgins.
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In turn, a police spokesman told reporters that the warehouse is owned by the police department. “We have a lot of biological evidence stored there, electric bikes, cars, as well as several historical cars,” he said, adding that biological evidence refers to DNA samples collected from crime scenes.
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The warehouse was mainly for storing evidence, he added. According to him, some of the evidence is 20-30 years old.
After the fire is extinguished, the relevant authorities will begin to investigate the cause of the fire. At the moment, the police do not know about the causes of the fire, said the employee of the department.
