The Brooklyn Bridge Briefly Catches Fire During a Fireworks Display

A call about a fire on the bridge came in at 9:32 p.m., the Police Department said. No injuries had been reported. Police officials said that the burning was “very likely” ignited by fireworks.

By CHELSIA ROSE, MACK LIERDAM and NATE SCHWEBER

The Brooklyn Bridge briefly caught fire during a Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday night.

Video footage showed several fires burning on the bridge soon after the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Show began in New York City, just after 9 p.m. The Police Department said no injuries were reported.

A New York Times photographer in Manhattan saw billowing flames coming from at least four spots on the bridge’s walkway, in places where fireworks were being set off. As the fireworks show concluded, a water truck was putting out the fires.

After the fireworks show ended, flashing red flights from emergency vehicles could be seen in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge.

A call about a fire on the bridge came in at 9:32 p.m., the Police Department said. No injuries had been reported. Police officials said that the burning was “very likely” ignited by fireworks.

By shortly after 10 p.m., the fire appeared to have been extinguished, officials said.

The bridge remained closed to traffic shortly before 10:30 p.m., with emergency vehicles blocking all lanes. An officer guarding the entrance to the bridge said it was closed to foot traffic, too. Shortly before 11 p.m., some emergency vehicles had left the bridge.

Sharanika Akter, 33, came from Queens to watch the fireworks show over the Brooklyn Bridge with her husband.

“Nobody panicked” in the large crowd on Old Fulton Street, she said. But many who had been recording the show kept their videos rolling as smoke rose from the bridge.

“Honestly, we were all pretty relaxed,” Akter said. “I thought it was pretty small, from my view from the ground.”

Having traveled to lower Manhattan from the Bronx and struggled to find a clear vantage point to watch the fireworks, Llurate Cekaj and her daughter, Kledisa Cekaj, hoped to redeem the night with a cool stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge. The Police Department prevented them from making the trek, because of the fire.

“I wanted to walk, this night is so nice,” Cekaj, 39, said. “Now we came for nothing.”

Kledisa, 14, said: “I’m really disappointed.”

Love Majewski was watching the fireworks from Manhattan, close to the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge, when she was surprised to see orange flames.

“I saw this weird fire, flames that came out of nowhere,” said Majewski, 53, who lives in Manhattan and had appeared on the TV show “Mob Wives.”

Majewski said that she sensed something was out of control when she saw flames growing in between what appeared to be meticulously timed fireworks blasts. She said that tourists around her couldn’t tell that something was wrong.

“It was very obvious that, for native New Yorkers, it was not part of the show,” Majewski said. “This is not usual, this is out of control.”

As midnight approached, the flashing lights of police vehicles could still be seen blocking the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan side.

Rainfall dissolved the steady crowd of people who through the night had approached the bridge, hoping to take it to Brooklyn. A few uniformed Police Department officers were still posted, turning scraggly, wet pedestrians away.