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Stay away from the Williamsburg waterfront while the seven-alarm CitiStorage warehouse fire at 5 North 11th Street and Kent Avenue continues to smolder for the next three weeks, officials warned. Workers, meanwhile, are cleaning up the debris of thousands of medical files that litter the area, according to reports in The New York Times and elsewhere.

The cause of the persistent fire, which popped up in two places, is under investigation. The privately owned land was supposed to be sold to the city to create Bushwick Inlet Park, but the city ran out of funds. It has been used to store medical and city records.

Other warehouse fires in the area included the 15-building Greenpoint Terminal Market in 2006 and a recycling plant at 860 Humboldt Street in 2014, as The Real Deal pointed out.

Click through to Gothamist for lots of incredible photos.

Fire at a Brooklyn Warehouse Puts Private Lives on Display [NY Times]
Warehouse Fire in Trendy NYC Neighborhood Could Smolder for Weeks [NY Times]
A Haiku, and Questions About a Fire, at a Brooklyn Cafe [NY Times]
Papers Fuel a 7-Alarm Fire at a Warehouse in Brooklyn [NY Times]
In a Rare Assignment, Fireboats Battle a Blaze in Brooklyn [NY Times]
Hospital Archives Burn in Brooklyn Warehouse Fire [WSJ]
Burned Williamsburg Warehouse Land May Be Worth At Least $100 Million [Gothamist]

Photo by Vladimir Badikov via Gothamist


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