Fire at NYCHA’s Brownsville Houses leaves 13 people injured

More than a dozen people were injured and nine hospitalized after a large fire at NYCHA’s Brownsville Houses on Wednesday night.

Firefighters responded to reports of a fire on the fourth and fifth floors at 268 Osborn St. just after 7 p.m. on March 20, according to the FDNY. Multiple residents of the six-story building were trapped by the flames when crews arrived on the scene.

At least 12 units were engulfed in flames, per officials. Roughly 60 firefighters were able to bring the fire under control by 8 p.m.

A total of 13 civilians were injured, and nine were transported by ambulance to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. Four refused medical attention on the scene.

The cause of the fire was not clear on Thursday morning, and is still under investigation by the FDNY fire marshal. The New York City Housing Authority declined to comment on the fire or how many people, if any, had been displaced by the blaze.

Brownsville Houses was completed in 1948, and has a total of 1,338 units with about 2,810 residents.

Several NYCHA developments in Brooklyn have experienced destructive fires since the end of 2023, and all have resulted in a number of serious injuries or deaths.

On New Year’s Eve in 2023, a four-alarm fire injured seven people and displaced 80 at Boulevard Houses in East New York. Just over a month later, a fire at Gowanus Houses left one person dead and three critically injured, and another fire at Langston Hughes Apartments in Brownsville injured 12 people just days later.

Another blaze at Langston Hughes left nine people injured — one critically — in December 2024.