Edward Norton's production company has been hit with a lawsuit by residents of a Harlem building that burned last Thursday during the filming of the upcoming movie "Motherless Brooklyn," The Hollywood Reporter said.
Sister and brother Erica and George Cruz filed the lawsuit Tuesday in New York County's Supreme Court, the publication said. The two, who leased a fourth-floor apartment in the building, charged that the production company, Class 5 Films, kept highly flammable equipment in the structure's basement.
The lawsuit also charged that landlord Vincent Sollazzo-Lampkin was careless, reckless and negligent in his upkeep of the building, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Erica Cruz charged that the fire aggravated her asthma and having to "run for her life down several sets of dark stairs engulfed in smoke" caused here severe emotional distress, the celebrity publication said. The siblings charged that they lost valuable property and the ability to live in the rent-controlled apartment.
A source told the New York Daily News that a basement boiler was being investigated as possible cause for a five-alarm fire.
FDNY firefighter Michael R. Davidson died while battling the blaze as emergency crews struggled to get it under control, The Hollywood Reporter said. At one point, firefighters had to back away from the fire when Davidson, a 15-year veteran of the department, was separated from his colleagues, the publication said.
Davidson, 37, was found later unconscious from severe smoke inhalation and was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after midnight Friday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Norton, who is starring in and directing "Motherless Brooklyn," which also stars Bruce Willis and Willem Defoe, issued a statement on social media, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
On Instagram, Norton sought to set the record straight on the fire, saying that it did not happen on his movie set but away from where they were shooting.
"It has been reported in some news outlets that the fire 'started on the set.' This is incorrect," Norton wrote on Instagram. "It appears to have started in the basement cellar of the building we were working in. We were filming in a bar and an apartment within the building and our crew noticed smoke rising up into where we were working.
"It has been reported that I was the one who smelled smoke and raised an alarm. This is incorrect. I was outside setting up a shot outside the building. Our fantastic 1st (assistant director) was the first to notice the smell of smoke before anyone even saw it and it was he and others on the crew who acted decisively and quickly to try to locate the source of the smoke, evacuate cast and crew, call the fire department and then rapidly move our equipment and vehicles away so that the FDNY had clear access. I cannot praise the professionalism of our crew highly enough," he continued.
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