NEW YORK.- Six people were killed and nine others injured when a fast-moving fire tore through a two-story row house in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood early Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The blaze, which broke out just before 2 a.m. local time, drew more than 200 firefighters and paramedics to 653 58th Street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, and was brought under control in about three hours.
Four residents were pronounced dead at the scene and two others died after being taken to local hospitals, USA Today reported. All six of the people killed were adults, and their names had not been released by Thursday morning. Firefighters rescued four people from the burning building.
The nine injured included four civilians, three firefighters and two police officers, and all were expected to survive, the Fire Department said. The blaze also damaged an adjoining home and displaced eight neighbors, who were taken to hotels.
"Fire on every floor"
Firefighters arrived within four minutes of the 911 call and found a wood-frame house already fully involved, Kevin Woods, the Fire Department's chief of fire operations, said at a news conference near the charred home.
"Upon arrival, we had fire on every floor," Woods said. "Fire blowing out every window, meeting us at the front door."
Firefighters got through a rear entrance of the two-unit home to reach two people who were trapped behind window bars, Woods said. The fire was raised to two alarms at 1:46 a.m. and to three alarms at 2:10 a.m., and 74 units with 231 firefighters and emergency medical workers responded, according to the New York Post. It was brought under control just before 4:30 a.m.
"This was a devastating fire," Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at the morning news conference. "It will take a long time for this neighborhood to mourn the neighbors they lost this morning and to recover from this immense grief."
The mayor said the city would support the families affected and praised the Fire Department's quick response. NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Daniel Flynn said crews rescued four people from the building.
Cause still under investigation
Fire marshals were still investigating the cause on Thursday, and officials stressed that no determination had been made. A lithium-ion battery was found at the scene, but the Fire Department said it was unknown whether it was related to the cause of the fire. A hazardous-materials crew was called to the scene because of the battery, the Wall Street Journal reported. The New York Post reported that a burned e-scooter was seen at the scene.
The house was built in 1915, according to city property records, and sits in a block of 25 wood-frame homes in Sunset Park, a densely populated working-class neighborhood in southwestern Brooklyn with large Asian and Hispanic communities.
The fire comes amid a deadly year for lithium-ion battery fires in New York. Last week, an e-bike battery fire killed a boy in the Bronx. More than 400 fires in the city this year have been linked to lithium-ion batteries, causing at least six deaths and more than 70 injuries, according to fire officials, the Associated Press reported. Whether a battery played any role in the Sunset Park fire has not been established.
What remains unconfirmed is the cause and origin of the fire, which the Fire Department's Bureau of Fire Investigation was still working to establish on Thursday, and the identities of the six people killed. This article will be updated when fire marshals announce their findings or the victims are identified.
Sources: Associated Press, November 5, 2026; USA Today, November 5, 2026; The Wall Street Journal, November 5, 2026; New York Post, November 5, 2026. All times are local time in New York. Cover photo: Eighth Avenue and 52nd Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, August 1, 2015 (CC BY-SA 4.0, MusikAnimal via Wikimedia Commons), cropped to 1920x1080 with a small flag of the United States added in the top-right corner.