pre-war, meaning they date before the 1940s. older buildings, generally oil burning buildings. that cob a clue. there is not much more of a pattern to join that. these were called multiple use buildings. on the storefront level, at 116th street and park avenue, you will see these two buildings. on the bottom, one was a spanish-christian church. the other was a piano repair shop. on top of each were four or five levels of apartments, usually somewhere between 2-4 apartments per floor. that is fueling the immediate concerns about injuries. so far, two surrounding hospitals who are expecting casualties. the numbers are low. control room, do we have a fire official on? we have tom van esen, who is the
one of them was a christian spanish church. the one next to it was a piano repair shop. above them, four or five levels of apartments that went back as far as could have 2-4 units per floor. a lot of people lived in there. they have been fighting this fire for about 40 minutes. there is an adjoining wall of a building if you are looking screen left at your television, the smaller building, we believe the wall that was shared has been breached. they have been 13rspraying a lof water on that building. this could be doing it to make it insulated from flame and fire and heat or because it is on fire. which is going to require more evacuations. we have someone else on the scene, cnn producer, rose rcee. what do you see there. reporter: i am standing 70 feet inside this debris, swarming with firefighters
manhattan as well as from above. we have been monitoring the situation since it happened for about 4.0 minutes. we ll too do so. yes, there are injured. the information is very premature. surrounding hospitals say they are treating one person. maybe more are expected. these were multipurpose buildings, storefronts on the bottom. one was a church and one was a piano repair shop. there could have been multiple apartments on each floor. right now, we want to listen to john deljorno, he is the air reporter from wabc. let s listen in to what he sees from above. john is not talking right now. he will be. he is a local reporter here at wabc. he is trying to get the scene from above. we will keep listening in to try
rose arce has been up here walking around this disaster area. te tell me what you have seen. reporter: this is a witness. i think rose is having a hard time hearing me right now. there were two buildings affected again. one was a piano repair shop. the other was a spanish, christian church. there were apartments on temperature of both buildings. the building we know is gone was a five-story apartment building. we have been told a short while ago that firefighters were still combing through the building looking for people who might be trapped inside. we have no word on what they found from inside there. all kinds of personnel on the scene. i should tell you we did just see a medical examiner truck
they are old structures, natural gas fed. they are called multi-use. on the ground floor as we monitor live picture, let s go back to the google maps so people can understand what happened here. two buildings, on the bottom, one was the spanish christian dhu church. i live a few blocks from these two buildings. i know that church. hopefully, it was uninhabited at this time of the morning. next was a piano repair shop. hopefully, they were vacant. on top of those were four or five levels. that s going to be the great concern. we understand it is a five-alarm fire right now. they are responding with ancillary units as well. the bomb squad is there because of gas and their analysis of what kind of explosions could come after this. as far as you know, congressman, is the situation getting all of the resources it needs. are all of the different