Fire in SoHo at 575 Broadway

A five-alarm blaze hit a historic building in SoHo last night that injured six firefighters and one civilian. The fire was brought under control this morning by 198 firefighters and 44 units. 1010 WINS is reporting that the fire is being called "suspicious" as it started in a utility room and spread through the building's ventilation system. The historic 575 Broadway, estimated to be worth $15 million, is home to the flagship $40 million Prada store designed by Rem Koolhaas. The building structure is safe, but a FDNY representative told the Post that "It's pretty nasty."

UPDATE 12:15pm [Jake]: just walked by the building. Lots of windows blown out on the middle stories in the front and back, with glass all over the sidewalk on Mercer Street. The Prince Street side of the building seemed fine-- and there was no smoke marks or obvious exterior damage besides the windows anywhere on the building. On the Broadway side there were still tons of fire trucks and police vans, but people appeared to be going into and out of the building. The Prada Store had its windows covered, so it was impossible to make out damage, but we saw a bunch of people walking into and out of the store, presumably checking on things. The American Eagle store had its doors open, but was closed to customers-- didn't seem like there was any real damage inside, but maybe things got wet.

UPDATE: The good people over at Verbose Coma have some pictures from inside the building. You can clearly see that there will be some serious damage to the Prada store, which was also rumored to have received $5 million in merchandise in the past week.