By Tom Nicholson
No injuries were reported as a result of the blaze that ignited in the three-story, 25-foot by 60-foot building at about 1:30 p.m.
The building formerly housed Enzoos Nude Furniture and Custom Made Furniture Co. Fire department officials did not release the name of the building's owner.
A Fire Department spokesman said the cause and origin of the blaze was still being investigated. Destruction from the fire was visible on all three floors of the building.
A witness to the fire said she saw men working on the roof shortly before the fire erupted.
“I live right next door and I can see the building from my window,” said Patricia Groves of 59-46 Summerfield St. “I don't know if the men working there had anything to do with it, but the next thing I knew there was smoke coming out of the building.”
The fire did not cause serious damage to adjacent buildings, a Fire Department spokesman said.
By about 2 p.m., firefighters had fought back most of the flames, but sparks and flares occasionally shot through the roof as firefighters hosed down the building.
Firefighters continued to work inside the building throughout the afternoon, chopping at window panes and walls with axes and keeping a stream of water spraying inside the structure's blackened interior.
“Most of the fire is under control and right now they're extinguishing hot spots,” a FDNY spokesman said at about 2:45 p.m. at the scene of the fire.
Throughout the afternoon, smoke continued to billow from the structure's windows. Pedestrians on nearby Myrtle Avenue covered their mouths and rubbed their eyes as they made their way through the smoke cloud.
It took 160 firefighters from 25 units to extinguish the fire, the spokesman for the Fire Department said.
Reach reporter Tom Nicholson by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
