Fire Rages In Cottages At Top Of Historic East Village Building

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A fire raged late Thursday afternoon on the upper floors of an East Village building.

The cottages on top of the building at 203 E. 13th St. caught fire around 3:45 p.m., the FDNY told CBS2.

The building is located at the northeast corner of 13th Street and Third Avenue. The Corcoran Real Estate Group showed a penthouse recently up for sale in the building for $4.44 million.

The building, known as Pear Tree Place, has portions dating back to 1865 and is also home to the original Kiehl's beauty supply store on the ground floor, according to the Corcoran Group.

It is also on the onetime site of the pear tree planted by Peter Stuyvesant, the 17th-century Dutch director-general of the New Netherland colony who is considered a founding father of New York City, according to the Corcoran Group.

Photos and video from the scene showed orange flames raging on near the roofline and black smoke billowing into the air.

One witness had worried about the risks from the fire.

"I did see debris, like, falling from the building and like, I thought maybe someone could get hurt, and I was like -- I don't know why they didn't, like, disperse everyone," said witness Lijuan Hartfield.

It took until 4:33 p.m. for the fire to be brought under control, 1010 WINS reported.

Two firefighters suffered minor injuries, the FDNY said. They were taken to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital Center.

There was no word late Thursday afternoon on how the fire started.