Greenpoint Terminal Fire

May 2, 2006

That's the old Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse burning to the ground as seen from my window yesterday morning. By the time I saw the smoke, the fire had already been raging for five hours.

When I first looked out and saw the black plumes, I had no idea what it was, just that it obviously wasn't good. Billowing clouds of black smoke, ballooning into the sky, rarely is. I was immediately reminded of watching the World Trade Center smoke and collapse, and then smoke some more from the rooftop of my former apartment. Although, unlike the World Trade Center, the Greenpoint warehouse wasn't a zillion stories high, towering over the skyline, making it unmistakable from miles away, so I had no idea what was burning. I didn't turn on the radio or the television, and I didn't find out what it was until later in the day.

Just because the warehouse wasn't a skyscraper doesn't mean it wasn't big. The complex sprawled over 21 acres of Greenpoint waterfront, an area recently rezoned and marked for redevelopment. The fire department is calling the blaze "suspicious" because of how quickly it spread, but the fact that the warehouse complex was nominated for landmark status, which would've hampered any bold construction plans, makes it suspicious, regardless.

Reading up on the fire, I learned that a couple of years ago, The Village Voice reported that Joshua Guttman, the same guy who owns the Greenpoint warehouse, tried to have another empty building in Brooklyn rezoned for luxury apartments -- that time in DUMBO. A week after that plan failed, the building went up in smoke.

Nobody was charged.

Guttman's lawyer told reporters that they don't know how the Greenpoint fire started, but that it might've been squatters.

Squatters? Of course! Those dirty tax-evading lowlifes, standing in the way of progress! I hope they catch them!

Pfft.