A massive five-alarm fire on the Sunset Park, Brooklyn, waterfront tore through three industrial buildings early Wednesday, sending a fireball into the night sky. The apparent gas-fed fire broke out in Universal Food Distributors, reported to be a soda and potato chip distribution warehouse, around 12:20 a.m. Wednesday, and spread to two other industrial factory buildings, with the first warehouse collapsing. Bright orange and red flames could be seen glowing in the dark as black smoke billowed into the air, and firefighters pumped about 15,000 gallons of water per minute on the fire, both from land and from two fire boats.
In Glasgow, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was alerted at 3:46 pm on Sunday, 8 March, to reports of a fire affecting the ground floor of a four-storey commercial building on Union Street. At its height, 18 appliances and specialist resources were mobilised, and more than 250 firefighters have attended the scene since the initial emergency call at shortly before 4 pm on Sunday 8 March. The fire has caused extensive damage to the building and the loss of the building's historic dome, with Scottish Fire and Rescue Service crews using high reach appliances and ground monitors to assess and cool off areas of the four-storey structure, which has partially collapsed. Crews are still working with structural engineers to assess the stability of the remaining building.
The response to the commercial building fire on Union Street, Glasgow, has been reduced further, with one fire appliance remaining at the scene as of 5:21 pm on Wednesday, 11 March. Firefighters continue to dampen down hotspots at the scene, and as of 4:30 pm on Tuesday, 10 March, four fire appliances and one high reach vehicle remained at the scene. Members of the public are advised to avoid the area where possible, and there are no reported casualties. SFRS will also work with partner agencies over the coming days, including Network Rail, Police Scotland and Glasgow City Council, and a preliminary multi-agency investigation into the cause of the fire is underway, therefore the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service cannot at this early stage speculate on what happened.
In Brooklyn, crews worked to prevent the fire from spreading to more waterfront properties, but water soaked a nearby furniture facility, and the roof collapsed on a tile company filled with ceramics, porcelain, and the owner's cherished collection of Cuban cigars. Officials say 270 fire and EMS personnel responded to the scene, and Ahmed Ibrahim is one of the victims, with his Jeep Compass now submerged in a parking garage filled with the water used to extinguish the five-alarm fire.
Separately, the West Midlands Ambulance Service have been called to a large industrial fire in Birmingham, where plumes of smoke can be seen coming from an industrial unit on Lifford Lane. In Sweden, the rescue service was dispatched to Wip industries in Åseda on the night leading to Friday, and there is a fire in an agricultural building – the rescue service is on site.
Firefighters extinguished a warehouse building fire near the Cul-de-Sac roundabout early Monday morning, after the Fire Brigade responded to a call at 3:00 am Monday for a fire at an industrial building near the Cul-de-Sac roundabout. Two fire engines and an ambulance, and 11 firefighters and chief of the brigade were dispatched to the scene, and when the emergency services arrived, half of the metal-clad building was already completely ablaze and had partially collapsed. The emergency services' intervention saved an adjacent building and required the use of four fire hoses at the height of the operation, with the Gendarmerie on site setting up a diversion to allow the fire engines to refill with water from a fire hydrant located 500 metres away in the Hope Estate. Fire fighters then carried out the necessary dousing to prevent the fire from reigniting until 8:00 am before leaving the scene at around 8:30 am to return and recondition their equipment.
Claudio Camara lives two blocks from the fire scene in Brooklyn, and the flashing lights, blaring sirens and tell-tale smoke pulled him out of bed. Fire Engineering provides breaking news headlines on fire and rescue incidents around the U.S. and globe, including major fires, firefighter line-of-duty deaths, storm and hurricane response, mass shooting and active shooter incidents, and more.