May 3, 2006, NY Times — A fire roared through a network of abandoned, historic warehouses on the Brooklyn waterfront yesterday with a speed and ferocity that challenged and exhausted hundreds of firefighters, and led fire marshals to suspect arson. The blaze burned all day as it consumed a former rope factory on West Street near the site of the Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, which launched the ironclad warship Monitor for the Union 144 years ago. The fire blackened the sky above northern Brooklyn with thick smoke shot through at its base with bright flames a block deep. The plume could be seen for miles. “It was like a flamethrower,” said John Czaplinski, who lives nearby on Noble Street. “The fire was leaping from one building to another.”
Blaze Levels Historic Warehouses [NY Times]
Fireball on the Skyline [NY Post]
Bravest Face 10-Alarm Inferno [NY Daily News]
Photo #1 by Digital Front
Photo #2 by Jeremy Schoenherr-Lachance
Photo #3 by jukeboxgraduate