Firefighters Battle Upper West Side Fire At Trash-Filled Apartment

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Firefighters battled a blaze on the third story of an Upper West Side residential building Tuesday that broke out in an apartment full of trash, an FDNY spokesman told patch.

The fire department spokesman hesitated to call the resident a "hoarder" and did not speculate on the cause of the fire but said that the sheer amount of junk that firefighters had to navigate in the apartment "didn't help in fighting the fire."

"Hoarder might be a strong word," the spokesman told Patch.

The fire broke out in the 13-story building located at 640 West End Avenue, near West 91st Street, around 3:45 p.m. and the flames were under control by 4:11 p.m., according to fire officials. No injuries were reported during the fire, an FDNY spokesman told Patch.

A photo taken by NBC New York showed how much debris firefighters had to clear out of the apartment while fighting the blaze.

The Fire Marshall's office will investigate the fire to determine its source, an FDNY spokesman told Patch.

Photo by Patch