The fire erupted at 8:20 a.m. on the top floor of the six-story rental building on West 107th Street near Amsterdam Avenue, heavily damaging four apartments and affecting several others on the floor below, the FDNY said.

Firefighters descended on the scene within three minutes, fighting the flames “very aggressively” and extinguishing “a tremendous amount of fire,” but ultimately had to move down and attack the blaze with tower ladders, according to Chief of Operations Kevin Woods.

Within about 15 minutes, the fire grew to three alarms, before escalating to a four-alarm inferno by 9:10 a.m., according to fire officials.

“We had a heavy collapse of the roof space into the top floor and also of the parapet wall into the street,” Woods said. “The parapet wall is the extension of the exterior wall above the roof line.”

Three residents suffered minor injuries in the blaze, and one firefighter was treated for a minor burn, according to EMS Chief Paul Miano.

“One of the residents was removed from one of the floors with a ladder company, a non-ambulatory patient,” Miano said.  “A ladder company and our rescue paramedics entered the building and made sure the patient was OK, and then brought the patient down.”

“It just goes to show again, the collaboration between our rescue paramedic program and our firefighters that we’re able to get inside and get the patients that we weren’t able to get to prior to this.”

A total of 40 FDNY units, including 140 fire and EMS personnel worked the scene, the department said.

A photo posted on X by the department shows the bright-orange flames and thick smoke escaping from the top floor windows and the roof.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

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