Fire Disrupts South Street Seaport

To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

A three-alarm fire under the boardwalk at Pier 17 of the South Street Seaport forced the New York City Fire Department to evacuate hundreds of people Saturday afternoon.

The FDNY said they responded to the call at approximately 4 p.m.

It took 140 firefighters about two hours to put out the fire.

“When we got here, we had heavy, heavy smoke, limited visibility," said FDNY Battalion Chief John Sarrocco. "We had to evacuate the pier. There had to be 4,500 people on the pier. We found fire under the decking of the pier.”

Firefighters had to use chainsaws to remove some wooden planks to get to the fire, which was underneath the pier and they also battled the flames from the water.

People who saw the fire say the Circle Line boat sprang into action and started dousing the flames until the fire department arrived.

"The Captain of the Shark, Capt. Mike Parizzi was like ok let's start it up. Let's get the hose out -drop the lines. We got on the face of it - tried to hose it as much as we can. And then we had the Bravest - FDNY Bravest came down. And they took over from there."

Later on Saturday, the mall at the pier was reopened and the music festival was able to continue.

No injuries were reported.

The FDNY determined by Sunday that the blaze was caused by electrical wires under the pier catching fire.