Did Hipsters Set Fire to Rosenwach Water Tank Company?

John Del Signore/Gothamist

The Rosenwach Tank Company, which is almost the oldest manufacturer of wooden water tanks in America, was hit by a pretty severe fire on the evening of July 4th at their headquarters in Williamsburg, where they mill their cedar wood for New York's ubiquitous rooftop tanks. And according to local custom, everyone's blaming the hipsters. We stopped by the site on the morning after the two-alarm blaze and several women who reside nearby agreed that "young white guys" had been setting off fireworks near the Rosenwach property around 9 p.m.

An anonymous source tells NY11211 that a witness spotted "white kids in their 20s shooting Roman candles off near Rosenwach, and that some of those fireworks landed in the yard. Since the yard was a big huge pile of wood, predictable things happened." And a tipster emails New York Shitty: "Apparently some hipster douchebags were setting off rocket fireworks on Wythe and N.9th and one went into the sawdust hopper of Rosenwach Water Tank. Way to go douchebags!! Another Williamsburg institution ruined!!" Maybe the fire was meant to be ironic?

Firefighters were still hosing down the property on Sunday morning, and it seemed that the blaze had been contained to just one part of the site. (Perhaps the only silver lining was the sight of a completely charred BMW with New Jersey license plates parked outside.) The FDNY is conducting an investigation, and it's hoped that witnesses will soon ID one of the usual suspects. Rosenwach's press liaison was unavailable for comment this morning, but a company representative did tell us that the fire was not devastating and they expect work to continue at the site soon.