RED HOOK — THICK CLOUDS OF BLACK smoke billowed over Red Hook, Carroll Gardens and nearby Brooklyn neighborhoods Wednesday morning as a fire raged at an NYPD impound warehouse filled with e-bikes at 700 Columbia St., a hook of land jutting into the Erie Basin. The call came in at 9:46 a.m., an FDNY spokesperson told the Brooklyn Eagle.
The conflagration quickly developed into an all-hands blaze, with 60 FDNY and EMS personnel from 12 units responding. FDNY also called in a HAZMAT unit due to concerns about the e-bikes’ dangerous lithium-ion batteries. One EMT suffered minor injuries, FDNY said. The fire was under control by 10:19 a.m., and the cause is still under investigation.
In Dec. 2022, another fire at the same NYPD warehouse complex injured eight people and destroyed DNA evidence from crime scenes, as well as cars, e-bikes and motor scooters, the Eagle reported. This past November, a third fire broke out in the car impound lot, damaging more than 20 cars, according to the New York Post.
Concerned residents from as far away as Park Slope posted on social media sites about seeing the smoke. One reader called the Brooklyn Eagle to report seeing heavy smoke as he drove along Court Street in Cobble Hill.
✰✰✰
