More than 170 New York City firefighters responded to a massive five-alarm fire in a four-story Brooklyn building that killed one person and injured several others early Wednesday morning.

FDNY officials say that the fire began about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday at a mixed occupancy building located at 267 Flatbush Ave. in Prospect Heights, reports The New York Times. They believe the flames started in a first-floor hardware store before spreading to apartments in the upper levels of the building.

The fire then burned for hours, until fire crews managed to bring it under control around 8:30 a.m., FDNY said. Firefighters were forced to evacuate the building and set up an exterior operation due to dangerous pockets of fire that made it unsafe for firefighters to go inside. The fast-spreading fire also caused structural damage to adjacent structures.

According to the New York Daily News, a 46-year-old man deli store owner was found dead in the building's backyard after he jumped from a fourth-floor window. NBC New York identified the victim as Bassam Awad.

In addition to the man who died, eight other people were hospitalized, three with serious injuries and five with minor injuries. Authorities say that the three people critically injured are a teenager who suffered from smoke inhalation, a 60-year-old woman and a 90-something-year-old woman. The women were treated for serious burns at theNew York-Presbyterian Hospital's Weill Cornell campus.

The rest of the victims were being treated at nearby hospitals for their injuries. Among those with minor injuries included two firefighters, the Fire Department said.

About 30 people were displaced after the fire.

Flatbush Avenue was closed from Prospect Place to Bergen Street while nearly 200 firefighters from 39 different units tried to combat the flames.

Officials have not confirmed the cause of the fire, reports Pix 11.

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