Shortly after the walls of one five- story brick warehouse on the East River collapsed, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said of the 10-alarm fire: "We're calling it suspicious in origin."

Fourteen of more than 400 firefighters suffered minor injuries, but no civilians were hurt and there was no need to evacuate the area, authorities said.

Scoppetta identified the warehouse owner as a Joshua Guttman, but had no other information. Guttman, who has various business interests including other properties in Brooklyn and elsewhere, could not be reached.

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A man who answered the phone at his Brooklyn real estate office said Guttman "probably was one of the owners" of the fire-ravaged property, but said he had left for the day.

A story published in The Village Voice in 2004 said Guttman tried to have another empty Brooklyn building rezoned for luxury housing but withdrew the request after a community board recommended it be rejected.

The building burned down a week later. Arson was suspected but no one was charged.

John Mulligan, a Fire Department historian, said the fire was the biggest, exclusive of the World Trade Center, since a 19-alarm fire at Brooklyn's St George Hotel in 1995.

The ruined warehouse complex is part of a historic waterfront area marked for redevelopment as high-rise housing.

The fire consumed part of the former Greenpoint Terminal Market, which was proposed for city landmark status, and a building that in the 19th century was the world's largest rope factory.

The site is on the waterfront in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood, a mixture of 19th century and small shipping and manufacturing firms.

The nearest homes are at least a block away. ASSOCIATED PRESS