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Fire Reignited at Burned-Out Chelsea Building, FDNY Says

By  Anton K. Nilsson and Gwynne Hogan | October 21, 2015 5:58pm 

 Smoke was emanating Wednesday afternoon from the West 17th Street building that was destroyed by a huge fire on Tuesday morning.
Smoke was emanating Wednesday afternoon from the West 17th Street building that was destroyed by a huge fire on Tuesday morning.
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DNAinfo/Gwynne Hogan

CHELSEA — The fire that destroyed a Chelsea building on Tuesday morning reignited Wednesday afternoon, sending plumes of smoke from the top of the building, the FDNY and witnesses said.

The fire department received a call at 2:41 p.m. about renewed, heavy smoke conditions at the destroyed building at 221 W. 17th St., an FDNY spokesman said. A fire official on scene said roofing material in the ravaged building reignited.

Fire marshals had been on the scene since Tuesday's blaze, and 75 firefighters responded to Wednesday's incident, Deputy Chief of FDNY Division 1 Kevin Brennan told DNAinfo New York.

"We're going to be here for a long time," Brennan said.

Freddy Endrica, 36, who works for an air conditioning company, was at work Wednesday afternoon cleaning out a nearby Wells Fargo office that had been damaged by smoke from Tuesday's fire when he saw new smoke rising from the burned-out building.

"We were looking at (the building) and all of a sudden smoke started coming out of it," Endrica said.

"We smelled a smoky smell, 'what's that smell what's that smell,' then we saw the smoke," Angie Bedoya, 50, was at work in a nearby building, said in Spanish.

Cameron Venti, 25, who lives in a building across the street from the devastated building, said he had gotten little sleep since Tuesday's fire.

"I just kept smelling smoke... Wow, (it's been) non-stop. A lot of wood in that building, I guess," Venti said.

No injuries were reported from the scene on Wednesday, the FDNY said.