Lightning struck a Brooklyn mattress factory yesterday, causing the city’s biggest fire of the year, a spectacular six-alarm inferno that gutted the building and injured 11 people.
Thick gray smoke visible for miles away billowed into the sky after the blaze broke out at 3:08 p.m. at the Paradise Mattress Co. at Bushwick and DeKalb Aves.
“There were flames shooting up on the back side,” said Tony Ribot, who lives in the area. “They were shooting 15 feet in the air.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said the blaze was the biggest of year because it was the first six-alarmer of 2004.
He said firefighters believe lightning from a storm caused the inferno because a witness reported seeing a bolt of lightning strike an air-conditioning unit on the rear of the roof.
“There was lightning in the area and it must have hit the roof,” Ribot said. “We knew it hit something but we just didn’t know what. Then we saw smoke and we knew where it hit.”
Some 250 firefighters from 70 units battled the blaze, which went to six alarms at 5:40 p.m.
Because the company used polyurethane foam – which burns quickly and intensely – in making its mattresses, firefighters were forced to fight the inferno from the outside.
Rather than enter the building, they poured water on the blaze from ladders.
As the fire raged on, the rear of the building collapsed. A downcast Robert Eisenberg, the owner of the 34-year-old company, said the factory was a total loss.
“Thirty-five people won’t have a job tomorrow,” he said. “They worked for me for 15 to 20 years.”
FDNY Chief of Department Peter Hayden said the fire broke out in the rear of the 40,000-foot, L-shaped factory.
Nearby homes were evacuated after the blaze began, but residents were later allowed to return.
No one was in the factory because of the July 4th holiday.
Hayden said 10 firefighters suffered smoke inhalation and a woman passerby suffered an asthma attack. Three of the firefighters were treated at the scene and the seven others were taken to two area hospitals.