Fire Rips Through Historic Red Hook Building, FDNY Says

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN — A fire ripped through a historic Red Hook warehouse that residents tried to landmark in an attempt to stop its owner from building apartments on the site, the FDNY said.

The S.W. Bowne Grain Storehouse, at 595-611 Smith St., caught fire at about 11:15 p.m. and took 106 firefighters until 12:37 a.m. to quell the flames, a spokesman for the FDNY said.

The four-story building was vacant at the time and no injuries were reported in the fire, fire officials said. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Fire officials did not know the extent of damage to the historic building yet, but said the flames spread to the third and fourth floors of the structure.

The S.W. Bowne Grain Storehouse was built in 1886 — when Red Hook was a global shipping hub — and stored goods until it was abandoned in the 1960s, Curbed New York reported.

A group of local preservationists recently included the historic warehouse on a long list of properties in Gowanus and Red Hook they want the city to landmark in the wake of Gowanus' rezoning.

Residents feared developer Meyer Chetrit would tear it down for new apartment complexes after they spotted workers on the roof earlier this month.

The Chetrit group already demolished three non-landmarked buildings on the lot this year, but the Department of Buildings did not issue any permits for the work, city records show.

Image: FDNY/Twitter