Six-Alarm Blaze Engulfs Tribeca Building at 24 Murray Street

Smoke billows from fifth floor of 24 Murray Street. Nearly 200 firefighters responded to the blaze. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib 

Flames engulfed the block-long building at 24 Murray St. in Tribeca Friday night, at times blanketing the area around the five-story structure in thick, dark smoke, and sending 23 firefighters to the hospital with minor injuries, a Fire Department spokesman said Saturday morning. The number of injured reported in the media Friday night had been less than a dozen.

Nearly 200 firefighters responded to the dramatic six-alarm blaze, where raging flames could be seen in the upper floor windows and shooting from the roof. The fire began around 6:45 p.m. and was brought under control at about 10 p.m.

Video courtesy of Barbara Borozan

No civilian injuries were reported in the building, which houses small stores on the ground floor and commercial tenants above. The building runs the length of the Church Street block between Murray Street and Park Place.

The fire "started on the first floor we believe in the ductwork in the restaurant," Chief Roger Sakowich told ABC7. "The ductwork ran up through the middle of the building. As the fire continued up it broke out on each floor." The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

In an email sent out Friday night, Lynn Ellsworth, president of the preservation group Tribeca Trust, mourned what she called a “tragic loss for Tribeca.” The 1851 building, she wrote, “was one of the last ‘ordinary’ store and loft buildings from the Civil War that stood outside our historic district borders.”