6-alarm fire displaces 40 Brooklyn families

More than 40 families were forced out of their homes after a six-alarm fire ripped through a housing complex in Prospect-Lefferts Garden Friday evening. It took 250 firefighters more than two hours to

News 12 Staff

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Aug 3, 2008, 1:09 AM

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Updated 5,985 days ago

More than 40 families were forced out of their homes after a six-alarm fire ripped through a housing complex in Prospect-Lefferts Garden Friday evening.

It took 250 firefighters more than two hours to put out the blaze, which started at about 6 p.m. on the 6th floor of the building at 57 Lincoln Road.

Some 25 people were sent to the hospital with injuries, 23 of them firefighters.

One person was listed in critical condition with chest pain, but officials say he is expected to recover.

Out of dozens of displaced residents, 14 families spent the night at Jackie Robinson High School with help from the Red Cross.

One of the tenants says she spent Friday night standing outside the closed-off building, waiting to get in to be with her three cats, one dog and more than a dozen birds.

"My only best friends and my only family are my babies, my pets," says the distraught woman.

Investigators determined that the fire was caused by faulty electrical wiring.

Fire crews remain at the scene of the blaze, and Red Cross representatives say they do not know when the families will be allowed back into their homes.