Sunnyside Fire Rips Through 6 Stores, Injures 12: FDNY

SUNNYSIDE, QUEENS — A dozen people were injured in a five-alarm fire that ripped through several Sunnyside businesses early Thursday morning, the FDNY said. The blaze broke out in a building on Queens Boulevard near 45th Street around 2:15 a.m., a Fire Department spokesman said.

It spread to six stores, leaving them badly damaged by the time firefighters finally got the blaze under control just after 7:50 a.m., according to the spokesman.

The fire left seven firefighters and five civilians with minor injuries, the spokesman said.

Some firefighters at one point had to race away from a backdraft that sent a fireball shooting out of one building around 3 a.m., ABC7 reported.

The fire forced Q32 and Q60 buses to make detours Thursday morning.

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents the area, called the blaze "devastating."

"So many great businesses destroyed," he wrote on Twitter. "Grateful that there was no loss of life."

(Lead image: A five-alarm fire ripped through six stores on Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside early Thursday morning. Photo from Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer/Twitter)