VIDEO: At least 10 people, including eight firefighters, were hurt Friday afternoon as a fire sent huge flames billowing into the sky over Chinatown.
Crews said the fire quickly spread to apartments on the upper levels of the building on Mott Street.
People in the area told CBS2 they heard loud popping noises and saw people running out of a store on the ground floor.
"It looked pretty small, but then it started spreading real quick," said witness Jhesson Ynoa. "It looked like an inferno. We started hearing pops, pops. The pops were getting louder, so we thought something was gonna blow up."
"They were met with heavy fire conditions in the front. They had fire running up the front of the building, occupied building, very, very challenging. It was really for the efforts of the firefighters that came in quickly, quickly stretched the lines, quickly got into the building, that mitigated any loss of life," said an FDNY official on the scene.