One in all Brooklyn’s most iconic artist studio buildings is in a precarious state after a five-alarm fireplace ravaged the 155-year-old warehouse in Pink Hook late Wednesday evening into Thursday morning.
Smoke crammed the third ground of 481 Van Brunt Road at 11:35pm on September 17 earlier than the fireplace unfold to the roof, forcing greater than 250 firefighters, EMS responders, and a marine fireplace boat dispatched to the Pink Hook waterfront to tame the blaze. New York Hearth Division (FDNY) officers stated they consider the constructing was unoccupied on the time. Two firefighters sustained minor accidents.
By the morning, a part of the roof and the fourth ground had collapsed, and Van Brunt Road had flooded out. The constructing had taken on a lot water from the firefight that it appeared to bow, sources on the scene stated.
Kevin Woods, chief of fireplace operations for the FDNY, informed reporters Thursday that firefighting operations had been nonetheless ongoing and that the deterioration of the constructing was “extensive.” The reason for the fireplace remains to be unknown.
“Before we get in there, the engineers have to evaluate the structural stability,” Woods stated. “With the amount of water going into this building and the amount of fire, with the damage to the roof structure and multiple floors, it’s going to take a while.”
Smoke billowing from the constructing on September 17, 2025 (pictures courtesy Megan Suttles)
The Civil Struggle-era warehouse is the non secular middle of Pink Hook’s vibrant arts group, which has rebounded since Hurricane Sandy flooded its streets 13 years in the past. The four-story industrial constructing comprises dozens of artist studios and high-end design companies and is dwelling to the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC), a 400-member, artist-run nonprofit that has hosted exhibitions on the primary and second flooring of its 25,000-square-foot house for 48 years.
Artists haven’t been in a position to enter the constructing and decide the extent of devastation to their areas. Managers for BWAC, which celebrated the opening of two group exhibits, Brooklyn Resilience and Aerosol Euphoria: City Road Artwork on Saturday, posted on Instagram that they had been nonetheless assessing the harm with authorities and requested for assist to assist them rebuild.
Anastasios Poneros, a mixed-media artist whose studio resides above BWAC’s house, was working late on an set up and left a couple of hours earlier than the fireplace began. His studio’s home windows had been intact, and she or he hoped that any water harm from hoses and sprinklers his house sustained can be minimal.
The day after the fireplace (photograph Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)
Some artists already know that their total life’s work has been misplaced.
Grace Whiteside, a glass blower and efficiency artist, stated she arrived on the scene at 7:30am and witnessed water pouring out of an open window like a “waterfall.”
“Absolutely nothing is salvageable,” she stated. “My entire livelihood was in that studio, either business-wise or art profession-wise. It’s possible the whole building will be condemned due to safety issues.”
Meg Suttles, founding father of the humanities residency and gallery house Scorching Wooden Arts, informed Hyperallergic that she was woke up by textual content messages from two of her studio neighbors who noticed firefighters getting into the constructing simply earlier than midnight. She took a cab and arrived at Van Brunt Road at 1am, and stayed up your complete evening as her portion of the warehouse turned engulfed in flames.
“I made a lot of 2am calls when I knew it was going to be devastating,” Suttles stated. “We’re just in shock today. I have 13 and a half years’ worth of artwork, plus things from undergrad that I did 20-something years ago, that’s all just gone.”
The fireplace’s destruction has forged a cloud on Pink Hook Open Studios, which is slated to have a good time its tenth anniversary this yr on October 11–12. Suttles, who co-founded the competition, wasn’t positive how the occasion would modify since a majority of open studios had been on the pier and the constructing may stay closed to the general public. For now, Pink Hook enterprise leaders have launched a GoFundMe marketing campaign to assist artists recuperate from the fireplace.
“[Red Hook Open Studios] can still go on because there are artists elsewhere, but this is such a huge loss,” Suttles stated. “I love this neighborhood, it’s such a magical place with unique people. I hope we don’t have to leave the neighborhood. I really hope we can rebuild somehow.”
