Afternoon Blaze Injures 4 At Upper East Side Building: FDNY

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An afternoon blaze ripped through the upper floors of an Upper East Side apartment building Thursday afternoon, officials said.

Four people — including two of New York's Bravest — were taken to local hospitals for minor injuries.

The three-alarm fire broke out at a pricy six-story co-op on Madison Avenue between East 95th and 96th streets at about 12:45 p.m., officials said, and it quickly ripped through the large, fifth floor unit where it began.

FDNY teams responded within minutes, according to the department, and eventually nearly 140 firefighters and first responders rushed to the scene.

"On arrival, we had heavy fire coming out the left side of the building, which is the exposure two side. Quickly made searches. Aggressively, we put out the fire. There was some extension to the sixth floor," FDNY Chief Chuck Downey said, according to a report from CBS New York.

The intense blaze took over two hours to get under control, and was eventually quenched at around 3 p.m., an FDNY spokesperson told Patch.

Officials said that that two civilians and two firefighters were treated for minor injuries on the scene.

Two were later transported to New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center and one person was brought to Metropolitan Hospital, according to fire department officials.

A resident told CBS New York that she lives below where the blaze broke out.

"It's an elderly couple. They were out of town, and only their daughter was home, but she's OK. She's at the hospital now," the woman told CBS New York.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, officials said.