A firefighter remains in serious condition after falling 40 feet into a manhole that burst into flames Friday afternoon behind a Harlem apartment building.

Eight people, including three firefighters, were injured in the huge fire that partially engulfed the six-storey building.

FDNY at 529 West 145th St., between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, around 2:40 p.m. Friday. He said that he responded to the call about the fire at the address. It took more than 200 firefighters and other emergency workers nearly four hours to extinguish the six-alarm inferno. The FDNY is still investigating the cause of the fire.

Fire officials described a chaotic scene in which flames were seen seeping through the second-floor windows of the building where the fire started. Flames quickly spread to the third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors, FDNY Chief of Operations Kevin Woods said at a news conference Friday.

Woods said it was a “labour-intensive” and “physically demanding” battle to contain the flames.

“There is a lot of space in these old buildings. Once the fire got into those spaces, once it got to the sixth floor, it started exploding back out through the top floor windows,” Woods said.

The fallen firefighter was transported to Harlem Hospital, where he remained with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Four people, including three other injured firefighters, were transported to Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center, while one person was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center. The other three people refused medical attention.

The Red Cross did not immediately respond to questions about how many people were displaced by the fire.

This is a developing story and may be updated.