A three-alarm fire ripped through three houses on Covert Street in Bushwick early Sunday morning, and before it was out firefighters had to rescue one of their own, according to AMNY.
FDNY crews reached the fire at 62 Covert St. just before 7:20 a.m. on July 5, according to AMNY. The blaze started on the first floor of a three-story wood-frame building and spread into two other houses. Some 130 firefighters responded and ran four hoselines to knock down the main body of fire, which was placed under control at 8:30 a.m.
At some point during the fight, a firefighter went down. The Firefighter Assist Search Team, the FDNY’s unit for trapped or incapacitated firefighters, was deployed to help. That firefighter recovered at the scene and refused medical attention, AMNY reported. No civilians were hurt.
A hazmat team was called in to pull a lithium-ion battery from the scene, according to AMNY, though the cause of the fire remains under investigation. Lithium-ion batteries, which power e-bikes and scooters, have been tied to a wave of fires across the city.
The fire broke out as temperatures in NYC were in the low 70s, following three days of a 100-degree heatwave, AMNY reported.
Carmela Rodriguez, who lives nearby, described watching the fire climb. “There was a good amount of black smoke coming from the roof of the building. They started using their saws and things took off for a little bit,” she told AMNY.
