More than 130 firefighters responded to a fire at a building under construction that collapsed in Brooklyn on Monday, officials said.
Just before 6 a.m. Eastern, firefighters were called to the corner of Gates Avenue and Nostrand Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, a spokesman for the New York Fire Department said. One person, a firefighter, was taken to a nearby hospital for minor injures, a spokesman said.
The lot at 394 Gates Avenue was a construction site, the spokesman said. It was not immediately clear what kind of building was being built, or who owns the property. The spokesman described the construction site, several blocks north of the busy artery of Atlantic Avenue, as vacant.
At least 33 units and 138 firefighters were on the scene, he said.
Video of the fire on Twitter showed smoke rising far above nearby buildings and across the intersection, which appeared to be blocked off.
It was unclear whether residents in the area were required to evacuate. Fire department officials could not immediately confirm if people had been in the building when the fire began.
The building has accumulated a number of complaints over the years, according to the Department of Buildings website. Since 2017, 20 complaints were filed about issues including squatters entering the building at random hours, heavy amounts of trash and graffiti.
“There are men going in and out of this abandoned property,” one complaint filed last November said. “We are fearful of the children that go to and from the store, because it’s so many and this is everyday they do this.”
At least 17 people, including eight children, were killed last month when a fire broke out at a 19-story apartment building in the Bronx. Officials described that fire as one of the worst in recent memory and said that the fire had been contained to one apartment and the hallway. However, smoke had quickly fanned throughout the entire building.