NEW YORK — No one deliberately set fire to the New York City Police evidence store that caught fire in Brooklyn late last year, fire officials said Thursday in releasing the cause.
An electrical explosion in a conduit leading to an exit sign sparked the three-alarm Columbia Street Fire on Dec. 13, which sent huge clouds of black smoke over Red Hook, have determined the firefighters.
More than 100 firefighters spent hours on site at the Erie Basin Auto Pound that day.
Twenty people, a mix of NYPD employees and contractors, were reportedly inside the warehouse when all hell broke loose. A total of eight people, three firefighters, three members of EMS and two civilians, were slightly injured.
The fire destroyed an untold amount of “biological evidence,” including DNA from past crimes such as robberies and shootings, some dating back 20 or 30 years, the NYPD said. However, rape kits were not stored in this facility.
The evidence was linked to cold crates, stored in cardboard drums, which could have fueled the flames.
Cars linked to high profile police killings, such as the police car in which Officer Ed Byrne was killed in 1988 and the Mobile Unit where Officer Miosotis Familia was killed in 2017, were there stored. Proof of Sandy’s ownership was there too.
There was no estimate of the cost of damage.
The Erie Basin is one of several lots the NYPD uses to store vehicles that have been impounded for reasons other than parking violations. These could include the arrest of the vehicle owner, investigation or legal reasons, depending on the city.