Row house fire in Brooklyn kills 6 people and injures 9
[November 06, 2026]
By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and KATHY McCORMACK
NEW YORK (AP) — A fire barreled through a multifamily row house in New
York early Thursday, killing six people and injuring nine others,
including some firefighters and police officers, the city's fire
department said.
More than 200 first responders descended on the two-story building in
Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood, where Kevin Woods, the department’s
chief of fire operations, said they were met with “fire on every floor.”
The severely charred building had “fire blowing out every window,
meeting us at the front door,” he said at a news conference. Fire
marshals were still investigating what caused the blaze.
Firefighters rescued four people, using a rear entrance to reach people
trapped behind window bars, Woods said. A staircase partially collapsed
inside the building, he added.
First responders brought the fire under control in about three hours,
and eight people who were displaced were taken to hotels. Woods said the
fire spread to one adjacent row house, but damage could be seen on
buildings to both its left and right.
Row houses share common walls and exteriors and are usually built in
blocks. Fire officials said the building was part of a block of 25
wood-frame homes in Sunset Park, a densely populated working-class
neighborhood in southwestern Brooklyn with large Asian and Hispanic
populations.
“This was a devastating fire,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at the 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 nine injured people were expected to survive, including three
firefighters and two police officers who had minor injuries. No names
have been released.
A lithium-ion battery was found at the scene, but it was unknown whether
it was related to the fire, the department said.
Last week, an e-bike battery fire killed four people in the Bronx. It is
among more than 400 fires in the city that have been linked to
lithium-ion batteries this year, leading to at least six deaths and more
than 70 injuries, fire officials said.
Property records show that the Brooklyn row house was erected in 1915. A
family sold it a few years ago to a company called One Golden Sunshine
Corp., according to city records.
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FDNY and officials work the scene of a deadly fire on Thursday, Nov.
5, 2026, in the Sunset Park section of the Brooklyn borough of New
York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Complaints filed with the city’s Department of Buildings in 2025 alleged
that the basement level was illegally being converted into an apartment,
and construction was underway without permits. The two apartments on the
first and second floors also had been illegally divided into three
units, the complaints alleged.
City inspectors visited several times — most recently in August — but
were unable to gain access, according to department records. Door knocks
and posted notices went unanswered, and the department ultimately closed
the complaints without investigating further. It is standard protocol to
close a complaint after multiple unsuccessful entry attempts, according
to a 2025 city audit of the department's enforcement actions.
Building inspectors do not have legal authority to force entry, though
they can seek a warrant depending on the severity of the complaint.
Fatal home fires are not uncommon, though the death toll in the Brooklyn
blaze was unusually high. A townhome fire in Chicago the same day killed
four people, including a teenager.
The U.S. Fire Administration says at least 1,555 people have died in
home fires this year. Among them were an Amish woman and her six
children who were killed in a swift-moving house fire in April in rural
Pennsylvania.
Last month, five people, including four children, died in a mobile home
fire in Canton, Texas. And in Riverdale, Utah, a man and his four
children were killed Oct. 1 in a house fire started by a power strip
that overheated, officials said.
——
McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press
reporters Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, Hannah Schoenbaum in
Salt Lake City and Yuki Iwamura in New York contributed.
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