Tribeca Rooftop Blaze Sends 3 Firefighters to Hospital

Left: Smoke from fire that apparently began on the 45 Warren Street roof is vented through the building's front door. Right: One of three firefighters who received minor injuries in the blaze is transported to an ambulance. Photos: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

A one-alarm fire broke out on the roof of 45 Warren Street in Tribeca early Thursday evening, causing the roof of the five-story condominium building to collapse, according to a witness, and sending three firefighters to New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital with minor injuries, a Fire Department spokesman said. One soot-covered resident of the building was treated at the scene and released.

“When we pulled up it looked like a pile of tires burning, a black column of smoke coming straight up,” said a firefighter on the scene who termed the blaze “pretty big.”

Erick Matjahic, the doorman at nearby 37 Warren Street, went to the roof to shut off the airflow to his building and could see flames, about three feet high, on the roof of 45 Warren. “I looked down I saw the basketball court on fire, I saw the plants on fire. The roof collapse. All the smoke was going in my face.”

A tower ladder was extended to the roof of 45 Warren, located between West Broadway and Church Street, and two other ladders were raised to neighboring buildings. Long after smoke had dissipated from the roof, it continued to vent through the front door, where firefighters maintained a constant spray of water.

The fire, called in at 6 p.m., was declared under control at 7:45 p.m., according to a Fire Department spokesman, who said the cause of the blaze is under investigation.