Watch: FDNY Firefighters Battle 5-Alarm Fire at Brooklyn Waterfront Warehouse

An FDNY fire boat was called in as over 250 firefighters responded to a warehouse fire on Brooklyn's waterfront.

Sept. 18, 2025

FDNY firefighters spent hours battling a five-alarm fire in a Brooklyn warehouse that broke out late Wednesday.

The fire was reported around 11:30 p.m. at 481 Van Brunt Street in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood.

FDNY officials said firefighters arrived within three minutes and the fire quickly spread throughout the four-story building.

"Upon arrival, we had heavy fire on the second, third, fourth floor, and through the roof," Chief of Operations Kevin Woods said. "Due to the amount of fire and the structural stability of the building, we removed our members and attacked the fire from the exterior, from the front and the rear with large caliber streams."

A fire boat was called in to help control the fire.

"The rear of this building is on the water, so we called in Marine 9, and we used some of their large caliber streams to extinguish the fire."

Two firefighters sustained minor injuries.

At the height of the fire, over 250 FDNY firefighters and EMS personnel were on scene.

About the Author

Peter Matthews

Editor-in-Chief/Conference Director

Peter Matthews is the conference director and editor-in-chief of Firehouse. He has worked at Firehouse since 1999, serving in various roles on both Firehouse Magazine and Firehouse.com staffs. He completed an internship with the Rochester, NY, Fire Department and served with fire departments in Rush, NY, and Laurel, MD, and was a lieutenant with the Glenwood Fire Company in Glenwood, NY. Matthews served as photographer for the St. Paul, MN, Fire Department and currently is a photographer for the Fort Worth, TX, Fire Department.