Port Chester firefighters, along with about 100 others from area departments, battled a two-alarm fire at 46 Broad Street early Tuesday morning.
It was just after 4:30 a.m. when a police officer on patrol noticed smoke coming from the building. Firefighters arrived to find heavy flames at the back of the building.
The building, along with all the others on the block except for one, are vacant – all slated for redevelopment.
"Thank God for that. We went in and did an aggressive search…to make sure nobody was in there, and then we got at it," said Port Chester Fire Chief Angelo Sposta.
Crews had to evacuate and fight the flames from the outside, and it wasn’t long before the back of the building collapsed.
The streets of the normally busy area near the Metro-North station were packed with emergency vehicles causing partial street closures as crews took about 45 minutes to get the fire under control.
Investigators are trying to determine a cause and say squatters is a possibility.
Port Chester Fire Chief Angelo Sposta
Mayor Louis Marino