Bldg. ‘up in smoke’
B’klyn weed grow house wrecked by fire, no one hurt
A routine fire call at a Brooklyn apartment building led to the discovery of a large marijuana growing operation inside, officials said Saturday.
Firefighters were called to the two story building nestled between a Papa John’s eatery and a boutique on Fulton St. under an elevated train line near Chestnut St. in Cypress Hills about 10:30 a.m., cops said.
When FDNY trucks arrived, there were indications a first-floor unit with marijuana plants created a “hazardous condition” and hampered firefighters, officials said. Firefighters also discovered an “unidentified substance in a tank” on the first floor, according to initial radio transmissions.
Several marijuana plants could be seen peeking out from a second floor window firefighters had to break open to vent the flames.
When the fire was extinguished, more than 70 marijuana plants, as well as heat lamps, lights and chemicals used to grow marijuana were found inside, officials said.
FDNY Deputy Chief Fred Schaaf said neighbors and people walking by the building called 911 about the fire.
“The building had extensive damage to the first floor. There was damage also inside the base celler,” Schaaf said. “The marshals are here on scene right now because it is being investigated as a possible marijuana grow house.”
More than 100 firefighters and EMS personnel were at the scene, and the blaze was put out within two hours. No injuries were reported.
FDNY Fire Marshals and the NYPD were teaming up to determine the cause of the fire — and who was running the grow house.
A back room on the first floor and the entire second floor were being used for marijuana growing and storage, a source with knowledge of the case said.
“It looks like the building was used solely for the grow operation,” the source said. “No one was living there.”
No one was ever seen going in and out of the shuttered storefront, but something smelled suspicious, neighbors said.
“The whole building (smelled) of weed,” said Norkelin Tavares, 34, who worked in a beauty supply store down the street. “The smell was for a long time but we didn’t see anything suspicious.”
“We don’t know who be in there,” added Yelfri Gonzalez, who lives nearby. “We don’t know who planted the weed and where it came from.”
“When I walk by here or when they do block parties, we never see nobody walk in that building so the solution is there has got to be a door from the back,” he said. “If it’s not a door it’s gotta be a window.”
Previous responses to underground pot factories have had dire consequences for the FDNY.
On Oct. 14, 2018, a firefighter was seriously hurt when he fell off a ladder responding to a grow house fire in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx. In September 2016, a gas explosion in another Bronx grow house killed FDNY Deputy Chief Michael Fahy.