One person was injured by a two-alarm fire that spread through two Ocean Hill homes late on Sunday night.
Firefighters responded to reports of fire at 670 Decatur St. just before 11 p.m. on Feb. 15, according to the FDNY.
Crews from Engine Company 233 and Ladder Company 176 were met with heavy smoke and flames and quickly triggered a second alarm as the fire began to spread to the cockloft area between the building’s top floor and roof and into the building next door, a boarded-up home at 672 Decatur St.
More than 100 firefighters worked to battle the blaze, and were forced to run a hose line over the roof of a car parked in front of a nearby hydrant. The blaze was brought under control just over an hour later, at 12:30 a.m.
One civilian suffered moderate injuries, per the FDNY, and was taken by ambulance to Interfaith Medical Center.
The Department of Buildings vacated both 670 and 672 Decatur St., according to the FDNY, and city records show that both buildings were badly damaged by the fire and needed structural inspections.
672 Decatur St. has been under a full vacate order since a fire in 2013, city records show. Department of Buildings inspectors noted at that time that the building had been illegally converted into a transitional housing structure with 28 beds.
In 2019, the city slapped the building owner — a Puerto-Rico based company — with a $24,000 fine after discovering that the home was occupied by at least six people, in violation of the years-old vacate order. In recent years, neighbors have complained that people were living in the derelict home, records show.
Brooklyn has seen a swath of residential fires over the last several weeks — six unrelated fires broke out in local homes last weekend, and another blaze in an allegedly illegally-converted home in East New York displaced 12 people on Feb. 10.
Update, 3/19/26: This story has been updated with new information from the FDNY that the fire started at 670 Decatur St. and spread to 672 Decatur St. An incorrect address has also been corrected in reference to Department of Buildings violations.
