A major fire broke out at a New York City Housing Authority complex in Williamsburg early Thursday morning, leaving 11 people injured, including a child in critical condition.
The blaze took place at Borinquen Plaza at 60 Moore St., a 7-story building with 80 apartments built in 1975, according to city property records. The fire started in Apartment 3A at about 1:45 am, a spokesperson for the FDNY said.
By the time the fire was under control an hour later, 11 people had sustained injuries, including four firefighters and seven residents. Nine of the injuries were minor, one resident suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, and one child is currently in critical condition.
Fox 5 reported that a baby was rescued through an apartment window by firefighters. The injured were taken to Woodhull Hospital, Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, and Weill Cornell Hospital for treatment.
A number of residents have been displaced, the fire spokesperson said.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation, though a resident told Fox 5 that a space heater had caught on fire in her apartment. Space heaters have caused a number of serious conflagrations in New York City in recent years, including the deadly Bronx fire in January that claimed the lives of 17 people.
NYCHA said that there has not been a heat outage in the building since October of 2021, and that smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in Apartment 3A were working upon the last inspection on Jan. 22. No heat outage was recorded for Borinquen on NYCHA’s outage dashboard.
Update 3/3/21 11:05 am: this story has been updated with comment from NYCHA.
