A massive fire ripped through a warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn overnight, causing extensive damage. 

Residents say the building was housing artwork for an upcoming show, and that some of their lifelong work may be destroyed. 

The fire broke out around 11:35 p.m. Wednesday at 481 Van Brunt St., near the waterfront. The flames could be seen in the night sky from miles away. 

"This building is a very large, four-story commercial building. Upon arrival, we had heavy fire on the second, third, fourth floor and through the roof," FDNY Chief of Operations Kevin Woods said early Thursday morning. "Due to the amount of fire and the structural stability of the building, we removed all members and attacked the fire from the exterior."  

The fire grew from a two-alarm to five-alarm response, with more than 250 firefighters on the scene. The back of the building runs along the water, so firefighters called in a marine unit to help battle the flames. 

Crews spent more than seven hours working to get the fire under control. Woods said they expected to be there for the rest of the day. It continued to burn late into Thursday night, nearly 24 hours after it started.

"We had extensive damage to this building. We had the roof collapse, and we also had the fourth floor collapse. So we will have structural engineers evaluate that," he said.

"Dreams going up in smoke"

Residents told CBS News New York the building was filled with artist co-ops and work for a show coming up in a few weeks.

"We are easily 50 to 100 artists in this building, including a huge artist co-op at the far end of the building. And we're on our way to what's called Red Hook Open Studios in a couple weekends, in which hundreds of visitors come through and meet artists and learn about them," writer and illustrator Lewis Matheney said. "I do OK as an artist, financially, but there are so many artists that are struggling financially right now, and this is literally their dreams going up in smoke."

"The building is filled with artists and artisans. I have a good friend who has a woodshop there, some really great artists in the building. Furniture makers, there's a motorcycle shop. Mostly small businesses," said Tomas Anthony, who lives across the street.

Sculptor Jennifer Sirey said she rushed to the scene to save whatever she could.

"You can lose anything in a second, so I was ready to say goodbye to it, and I still am," Sirey said.

"I have things from maybe the past 10 years. It's possible they might not make it," painter Zach Bruder said.

"People losing their ... everything they worked on for years. It's horrible," artist Deborah Ugoretz said.

"We started a GoFundMe page. We are looking to all of New York City to help us out," said Carly Baker-Rice, executive director of the Red Hook Business Alliance. "We forget about how artists and spaces like this contribute to the culture, the economy."

Woods said the building was built in the 1870s is more than 150 years old.   

"This type of construction is called heavy timber. It's all wood, heavy, heavy timber, minimum 8 by 8 columns and girders. So once these structural members start going, the fire takes over rather quickly," he said.

The city's Office of Emergency Management asked residents to close their windows to avoid the smoke and to expect traffic delays in the area.

Woods said the building was believed to be unoccupied, and two firefighters suffered minor injuries but are expected to be OK.

Property manager Raymond Hall said the fire started on the third floor, where carpenters have their shops set up.

"The roof has collapsed on the fourth floor, to the third floor," Hall said. "In this building, it could be anywhere between 80 to 100 people a day, and the fact it happened at night, thank God."

At this point, there's no word on what sparked the massive fire. The fire marshals have been notified and will investigate the cause.