Newsday

Trucker Brian Biggs, who was trying to make deliveries at the time, said "flames were everywhere."

More than 100 firefighters tackled the blaze, which was reported shortly after 5 p.m. at a two-story commercial building that is part of the Hunts Point Cooperative Market.

The market, which sits on a 60-acre site in the Bronx, houses dozens of independent wholesale food businesses and bills itself as the world's largest wholesale food distribution center. It is involved primarily in the production, processing, distribution and sale of meat products ranging from hamburgers and fresh mutton to Kobe beef and exotic animal meat.

Hazardous-materials teams rushed to the burning building because of fears that refrigeration units containing ammonia and Freon gases could catch fire, but that didn't happen, the fire department said.

Because of the danger, firefighters inside the building were withdrawn, and from the outside they shot streams of water onto the flames as strong winds blew the smoke. Three of the firefighters suffered minor injuries, but no one else was reported hurt.

The fire was brought under control within a few hours. No cause had been identified as of Monday evening, firefighters said.

In 2005, the historic Fulton Fish Market, a lower Manhattan fixture for 180 years and second in the world only to Tokyo's market, began operating out of a new gleaming refrigerated hub on the Hunts Point peninsula, further establishing the area as the leading food distribution center in the country.

The following year, 11 people, including members and associates of the Genovese and Lucchese organized crime families, were indicted on charges of running an illegal gambling ring at the Hunts Point complex.