Artists and small business owners in Red Hook, Brooklyn, are still dealing with the aftermath of an extensive fire in a warehouse that destroyed their studios and much of their work and inventory last week.

The four-story warehouse at 481 Van Brunt St. is home to the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Hot Wood Arts, and several small businesses. FDNY officials say the fire started on Wednesday night and was stabilized by Thursday morning. The fire’s cause remains under investigation.

Megan Suttles, a sculptor and mixed media artist who owns Hot Wood Arts, which has artist studios, a recording studio for resident musicians and a stage for performances, said her studios were severely damaged because they were located right under where the fire started.

“Some of us lost a whole lifetime of work,” Suttles said. “It’s not something you can just replace. I don’t have the words for the feeling because I’m still in such shock. It doesn’t really feel like it’s happened yet.”

She said she had to notify 19 artists who work in her studio that they most likely lost all of their work.

Alicia Degener, the president of the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, said artists were anxious to retrieve and salvage their work, but haven’t been able to return to the building because it’s still unsafe.

The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition featured almost 500 artists in its space for an exhibition opening last weekend, which means there are around 800 pieces of art in its section of the warehouse, Degener said.

“It’s a terrible feeling, it’s like losing a part of yourself,” Degener said. “Each phase you make art, you’re a different person during that time. The art I made 10 years ago isn’t the same art I’m going to make now nor should it be. But then that’s like a part of you gone in a way.”

But not all of Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition’s art is lost, she said. Although the studio sustained water and smoke damage, the damage seems less severe than in other parts of the warehouse, Degener said.

Other denizens of the warehouse weren’t as lucky. Lanoba Design, a small business selling refurbished Danish furniture from the 1950s, lost its entire inventory of around 800 pieces after they were completely destroyed by the water firefighters used to put out the blaze, according to co-owner Lars Noah Balderskilde.

“It’s soul crushing,” Balderskilde said. He started the business with David Singh 10 years ago. Lanoba struggled to survive the COVID-19 pandemic, but Balderskilde called this fire the most devastating event he’s experienced as a business owner so far.

“We have lots of great designs and some rare pieces that are almost one-of-a-kind,” he said. “It’s not just furniture, it’s like a cultural heritage of vintage stainless modern design that’s destroyed forever.”

Singh said that in addition to mourning the loss of their pieces, dealing with the complexity of insurance and navigating government aid to help with the immense financial losses has been overwhelming.

But in the wake of the fire and the long recovery ahead, the Red Hook community has been a bright spot for the affected business owners and artists.

Balderskilde said as a Danish person, he isn’t very emotional and felt numb when he first heard about the fire. But the overwhelming amount of support he received from the local community within 24 hours of the fire “brought tears to [his] eyes.” He said it inspires him to move forward and fight to bring his business back.

“I think if we hadn't had that support, we would just have been in a deep black hole and just full of depression,” Balderskilde said.

Other businesses that were also affected by the fire include Ladies & Gentlemen Studio, Fine Wood Conservation and Sticky Glass.

More than 200 firefighters and emergency response officers responded to the five-alarm fire late on Wednesday night, according to FDNY officials. EMS treated two firefighters with minor injuries and both were transported to nearby hospitals.

To combat the fire, firefighters sprayed the building with jets of water, which was “pouring out of the windows like Niagara Falls,” Deneger said.

Carly Baker-Rice, the executive director of Red Hook Business Alliance, has raised over $130,000 so far in a GoFundMe to support the businesses and artists affected by the fire.

“We’re artists, and stuff happens to art all the time,” Deneger said. “It is what it is and we’ll see what happens.”