The scene on Saturday. (Daniel Leinweber of Razberry Photography)
The seven-alarm fire that sent smoke billowing across North Brooklyn has finally been put out some five and a half days after it engulfed a Williamsburg storage facility.
The blaze was declared under control shortly before 3 p.m. today, an FDNY spokesperson told Bedford + Bowery.
The announcement came in the wake of Mayor De Blasio’s visit to the site of the waterfront fire this morning, as well as a Times report that two city agencies — the Administration for Children’s Services and the health department — stored records in the facility, and not as many as was initially feared.
During this morning’s visit, Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said there was “nothing we’ve uncovered yet that indicates that this fire is an arson fire,” the New York Observer reported.
Earlier this week, Bedford + Bowery reported that State Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol had joined neighborhood and environmental activists in demanding air testing in the wake of the fire. Yesterday, a press release circulated by Greenpoint resident and environmental health advocate Michael Schade quoted City Council Member Stephen Levin as saying that “last weekend’s 7-alarm fire has raised serious health concerns for residents in North Brooklyn and it is crucial that the City does everything in its power to address these concerns.” Levin, whose district includes Greenpoint and Williamsburg, went on to call for “a more thorough, and coordinated effort to address the broader community impacts of fires of this magnitude.”
State Senator Daniel Squadron, whose district includes the Lower East Side, was quoted as saying, “New Yorkers need to have confidence that when there are major disasters, like the fire in Williamsburg, the broad impact is handled with the same urgency as the event itself.”
Dan Kass, deputy city health commissioner for environmental health, told the Times that there were no plans for air testing, since the trace amount of toxins that might’ve been released by the fire were not a concern for people who had been casually exposed. “At a community level, air quality has returned to normal,” he said.