Arson in Brooklyn Fire??

Well I'd be shocked. NOT. Fox5: A warehouse fire has been burning for more than 24 hours....The historic waterfront complex contains a building that once housed the world's largest rope factory. The ten-alarm blaze broke out at about 5:30 a.m. yesterday. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said it would be investigated as possible arson. Eighty units and more than 400 firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, using several tower ladders on three street sides while five fireboats pumped water on the flames from the East River. The department calls the technique "surround and drown." Fourteen firefighters suffered minor injuries, but no civilians were hurt and there was no need to evacuate the area. Scoppetta identified the warehouse owner as Joshua Guttman. Guttman, who has various business interests including other properties in Brooklyn and elsewhere, could not be reached by telephone yesterday. Guttman's lawyer, Joseph Kosofsky, told The New York Times that the developer had no idea how the fire began. The ruined warehouse complex was part of an area marked for redevelopment as high-rise housing. The fire consumed part of the former Greenpoint Terminal Market, which had been proposed for city landmark status. ---------------------------------------------------- WINS: Guttman, who has various business interests including other properties in Brooklyn and elsewhere, could not be reached by telephone on Tuesday. Calls to his Brooklyn real estate office and his home in Lawrence, N.Y., were not immediately returned.Guttman's lawyer, Joseph Kosofsky, told The New York Times that the developer had no idea how the fire began."It's the last thing in the world we need right now,'' Kosofsky told the newspaper for Wednesday editions. He's a very substantial guy. If someone set fire to it, it could have been squatters, it could have been anybody. How in the hell can you watch 21 acres of industrial property?''A story published in The Village Voice in 2004 said Guttman tried to have another empty Brooklyn building rezoned for luxury housing but withdrew the request after a community board recommended it be rejected. The building burned down a week later. Arson was suspected but no one was charged, the Voice reported.