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Our city's bravest worked through the night in Brooklyn to knock down a factory fire which was still smoldering on Tuesday morning.
However, around 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the fire was finally under control, some 15-plus hours later.
But at its peak, the fire could be seen for miles and this blaze destroyed a mattress factory that has been in place for more than three decades.
This is a very sad story. this was the biggest fire of the year in New York City. Over 250 firefighters from 70 units battled this blaze and nine firefighters were injured along with one civilian and the fire is not over yet.
The intense fire on Dekalb Avenue burned through the night as a nasty curtain of smoke and ash settled on a neighborhood. The flames broke out around 3:00 p.m. Monday afternoon and quickly rang six-alarms sending dark gray smoke that could be seen miles away in Astoria.
It happened inside the Paradise Mattress Factory. Workers say there were probably 18 hundred mattresses here ready to be shipped out today plus all the supplies to make more. Officials suspect one bolt of lightning may have started it.
Nicholas Scoppetta, NYC Fire Commissioner: "It is a little unusual. By a lightning strike. We have at least one witness who tells us that it looked like it struck an air conditioner and then may have begun there."
As part of the building collapsed, the owner watched 35 years of sweat and dreams reduced to ashes. Robert Eisenberg, Factory Owner: "I don't know what to say. I can't believe what I'm seeing. It's just a nightmare. I don't know where to begin, I don't know what to say."
While firefighters were able to keep flames from spreading to nearby homes, there was no way to contain the smoke. It was smoke that asthma patients had to suffer through.
Resident: "It is terrible. It is hard. It is a hard condition to breathe."
The fire happened in a very residential neighborhood. There is a school and a library in this area and it is very fortunate that because of the holiday, no one was inside the factory when the fire began.
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