BREAKING NEWS: At least two people are injured after massive fire breaks out on the roof of New York City hospital
- A two-alarm fire has been reported at St John’s Episcopal Hospital in Queens
- Photos and video on social media showed the roof ablaze with masses of smoke
- The New York City facility has 257 beds and is in the Far Rockaway district
- The smoke was visible from Manhattan, 20 miles away from the seafront facility
- New York Fire Department said the blaze was ‘active’ but under control
- They said two people had been injured but their injuries were not specified
A New York City hospital was ablaze on Friday, with two people reported injured as firefighters battled the rooftop flames and huge black plumes of smoke billowed into the sky.
The two-alarm fire was reported at the 257-bed St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, Queens at 5:15pm, a New York Fire Department spokesman told DailyMail.com.
Twenty five units were responding, with 106 fire fighters and other first responders on the scene.
Two civilians have been injured, he said, but the extend of their injuries are unclear. He did not know if the entire hospital has been evacuated.
The fire was on the exterior roof, he said, and it was unclear how it began.
Dramatic photos shared on social media showed the thick black smoke on Friday afternoon
The roof of the 257-bed facility was ablaze, but it was not immediately clear the internal damage
The thick smoke from the fire was visible for many miles as it blew out into the ocean
The fire at the coastal hospital could be seen from Rockaway’s beaches and for many miles
A hospital in New York City was on fire on Friday evening, with a huge blaze of smoke
He said the fire remained ‘active’ but was not out of control.
NYPD officials told Pix11 that the hospital’s emergency room had been evacuated.
Photos and video shared on social media showed the roof of the building on fire.
The thick cloud of black smoke billowing out across Rockaway beach was visible from Manhattan, 20 miles away.
The hospital, founded 110 years ago, is described on its website as the only facility providing ’emergency and ambulatory care to the densely populated, culturally and economically diverse, and medically underserved populations of the Rockaways and Five Towns in southern Queens County and southwestern Nassau County, New York.’
Video shared on social media showed people running out of the hospital.
Some medics in their scrubs were standing outside the facility, filming and photographing the roof on fire.
The flames on the roof were clearly visible amid all the thick black smoke
A Fire Department spokesman said it was too early to tell what caused the blaze
The entrance to the hospital on Friday, where a fire broke out at 5:15pm
Advertisement