A Cypress Hills house fire displaced eight households on Monday night, just three days before Christmas.
The blaze broke out in the rear of a home on Pine Street near Ridgewood Avenue just after 7:30 p.m., according to the FDNY, and quickly spread through the two-story home.
Firefighters on the scene called a second alarm as flames began to spread to the connected home next door. Units battled the flames for nearly three hours, and finally placed the fire under control just before 10:30 p.m.
Part of the building’s roof collapsed during the firefight, and after an inspection, the Department of Buildings placed a full vacate order on the home and its attached neighbor, citing the collapse and structural damage caused by the blaze.
The American Red Cross responded to the scene and registered 27 people from eight different households in need of emergency assistance, including temporary housing and financial help.
City records show that the Pine Street home — which has two units on two floors — has been the subject of multiple DOB complaints regarding illegal apartment conversion and overcrowding. City inspectors tried to gain access to the home twice this fall, records show, but were turned away.
The Cypress Hills blaze was the third of three residential fires reported across Brooklyn within a 40-minute span on Monday night.
Just before 7 p.m., firefighters responded to a small blaze on the 1500 block of Brooklyn Avenue in East Flatbush. No injuries were reported, and the flames were brought under control relatively quickly.
At about the same time, the FDNY received reports of a fire in the elevator mechanical room of a six-story apartment building on Brighton 5th Street, near Riegelmann Boardwalk, in Brighton Beach.
A team of roughly 60 firefighters and EMS personnel were dispatched to the scene, per the FDNY, and managed to extinguish the flames in about 20 minutes. No injuries were reported, though the blaze, per city records, is just the most recent issue in the building.
DOB records show that residents regularly complain of out-of-service elevators, and that the building’s owners in July were cited for a broken elevator safety mechanism.
