STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A four-alarm fire that gutted an empty warehouse on the Mount Loretto grounds Saturday evening came close to a church made famous by The Godfather, but firefighters held the flames back and the landmark came through untouched.
The fire broke out shortly before 6 p.m. in the warehouse, which had been sitting empty for about five years. Crews pulling up found the building fully involved and chose to fight it from the outside, setting up tower ladders and hose lines rather than sending firefighters in. The roof eventually caved in, and the department kept a collapse zone around what was left.
The blaze also reached a neighboring commercial building on Hylan Boulevard. More than 200 firefighters and emergency medical workers were sent to the scene, according to the department’s chief of operations, Kevin Woods.
Strong winds carried burning embers across the property, and Woods credited his crews with knocking those down before they could ignite anything else. By roughly 8:30 p.m., crews had the fire in hand.
Two people suffered minor injuries, among them a firefighter who was burned on the leg. Two schools and a senior center on the grounds were not affected, and firefighters planned to stay overnight to soak lingering hot spots.
The historic church of Saints Joachim and Anne sits close by on the same campus. Its exterior appears in the baptism scene of the 1972 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The Catholic church has been through fire before: a 1973 blaze destroyed most of the building, leaving only its front facade, and it was rebuilt three years later.
The fire marshal’s office is investigating what started Saturday’s fire.
Section: More St. Petersburg FL crime news
Filed under: St. Petersburg FL Public Safety News
