I met with a rep from Gansevoort South this morning and asked about the fire - he said the story he heard was that a bag of rags caught on fire, it started to smoke, immediately one of the lounge attendants on the roof deck took a fire extinguisher to it, and then it just kinda smoldered and produced a bunch of the steam. Everyone was shocked that it was even a news story because just 1 guy leaned over, put it out, and went about his business.

Likely story?

while i'm sure it was a minor fire at the gvoort, it couldn't have just been put out right away. someone managed to take a picture of the smoke and there was a LOT of it. and it didn't look like extinguished smoke. but what do i know? if i had known how huge hotel fires would be i woulda given that FDNY guy another chance.