Fox5:

A warehouse fire has been burning for more than 24 hours….The historic waterfront complex contains a building that once housed the world’s largest rope factory. The ten-alarm blaze broke out at about 5:30 a.m. yesterday. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said it would be investigated as possible arson. Eighty units and more than 400 firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, using several tower ladders on three street sides while five fireboats pumped water on the flames from the East River. The department calls the technique “surround and drown.” Fourteen firefighters suffered minor injuries, but no civilians were hurt and there was no need to evacuate the area. Scoppetta identified the warehouse owner as Joshua Guttman. Guttman, who has various business interests including other properties in Brooklyn and elsewhere, could not be reached by telephone yesterday. Guttman’s lawyer, Joseph Kosofsky, told The New York Times that the developer had no idea how the fire began. The ruined warehouse complex was part of an area marked for redevelopment as high-rise housing. The fire consumed part of the former Greenpoint Terminal Market, which had been proposed for city landmark status.