The fire was first reported shortly before midnight Saturday at the back of the restaurant on the ground floor, before spreading to the entire four-story mixed-use building and setting off five fire alarms, officials said. About 170 firefighters spent more than six hours battling the “huge volume of fire,” according to FDNY assistant chief Tom Currao. Half a dozen firefighters were taken to hospital with minor injuries, authorities said. No residents were injured. A Red Cross spokesman said two households were receiving temporary housing, while two other families had moved in alone. While the cause of the fire was still under investigation on Sunday afternoon, officials said conditions inside the building – located in Chatham Square – may have played a role in the flames. “In many of these older buildings, there are many hidden places where fire can travel,” Currao said Sunday. “As much water as we brought into the building was difficult to turn on and off.” The blaze comes just two weeks after another fire killed two people – a 52-year-old man and his 91-year-old mother – in an apartment on nearby Mulberry Street. Mei Lum, the owner of the nearby Wing on Wo, said she woke up early Sunday with thick clouds of smoke over her Mott Street apartment and immediately thought about the recent hell. “It’s just disastrous to think about the short term [since the last fire] and the kind of shift that happens to small business owners and residents, “Lum told Gothamist. “There is something very intense to see your neighborhood burning like this,” he added. “It’s really hard to redefine ourselves when one thing happens after another.”
