A massive fire tore through a Brooklyn supermarket Wednesday evening, injuring seven people and displacing about 30 residents as it quickly spread to four neighboring apartment buildings.
The blaze began just before 6 p.m. inside Christa’s Kitchen & Market on Bushwick Avenue in Bushwick and grew to at least a five-alarm fire with over 250 smoke-eaters responding, FDNY officials said at the scene.
The seven wounded all suffered minor injuries and included six firefighters — five of whom were transported to local hospitals — and a civilian who was being treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.
“This fire impacted this community, not only the supermarket that they use but the residents of this community in four different buildings,” FDNY First Deputy Commissioner Joseph Pfeifer told reporters at the scene. “And our hearts go out to those residents.”
The flames — described as “a very significant amount of fire” by FDNY brass — began in the food store and soon engulfed two adjoining buildings to its left and at least two buildings behind it on Cooper Street.
Despite the first firefighters arriving within three minutes of the 911 call, the attached, older buildings made of wooden structures went up like a matchstick.
“We were really trying to get ahead of this,” Assistant Chief Thomas Currao said. “It’s really one of the challenges in wood-frame construction.”
As the department officials spoke, fire engines were still blasting water at the blackened and burnt storefront behind them.
“Will be on scene for quite a while,” Currao said. “We’ll have a watch line in place [to make] sure this fire is fully extinguished.”
Staffers with the Red Cross also responded and assisted the 30 residents left homeless by the fire and smoke.
“[We] mustered everyone together we could muster arranging for buses to take them to a reception center where we’ll do intake on our clients and find them a place to stay,” Red Cross staffer Eric Declercq told The Post.
They gave out blankets and water bottles to the affected tenants.
One displaced resident named Mark was left without words as the inferno tore through his home.
“My house is on fire, sizzling,” he told The Post. “What do you want me to say?”
He said about 15 people live in his apartment building.
Another woman named Kat said her grandmother lived in one of the burnt buildings, but was luckily not home when the fire started.
“We came to see the damage. The damage was done,” she said.
Smoke darkened the sky and was visible for about a mile. Some residents who gathered near the scene to see what was happening said they saw it on their commutes home.
“Never seen anything like this,” said a 22-year-old restaurant server named Will, who saw the flames from the above-ground J train.
It’s unclear what started the fire. Fire marshals will conduct an investigation into its cause.