Smoky Fire Leads to Evacuation of Tribeca Office Building

An injured building superintendent is wheeled from 99 Hudson Street following a fire in the building. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum/Tribeca Trib

A fire broke out Monday afternoon in an air handling room of the second floor offices of The Weinstein Company, the Tribeca movie production company at 99 Hudson St, between Franklin and Harrison. A building superintendent and another building worker were injured.

The Fire Department called both injuries minor, though at least one of the victims was wheeled from the scene on a stretcher.

Water from the second floor was being pumped into three trucks Monday night and damage to the Weinstein offices on that floor was described as "bad" by a building worker. The company occupies several floors of the building.

The fire, which was “mechanical-related” and set off an alarm to the Fire Department, broke out at 3:22 p.m., according to a Fire Department spokeswoman. Twenty-six units, including 84 firefighters, responded and put out the blaze by 4:07 p.m., the spokeswoman said.

The building was evacuated as a precaution.

“Chaos was what I saw,” said Brian Hester, a manager at Regus Business Center, a company on the fifth floor of the building. He said he was responsible for leading the evacuation on his floor.

“By the time I went by [the second floor] door, there was a lot of smoke,” Hester added. “There was a smoke light on in there and you could smell it. They were pouring water like they were opening up Niagara Falls in this thing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much water in one place.”

Another man who works in the building and also helped with the evacuation, but did not want to be identified, said he smelled smoke “immediately.”

“The computers kept flashing and everything like that,” he said. “And you heard noise on the ceilings like it was electrical.”

“We didn’t get to see anything,” the man added. “I swear, we just ran out immediately.”

The employees were permitted to return to the building at about 4:30 p.m. The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to Deputy Chief George Healey.