Firefighter killed in blaze on Motherless Brooklyn set

From Digital Spy

A firefighter has been killed on the set of Motherless Brooklyn.

The movie – which stars Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Leslie Mann and Edward Norton and follows a private detective (Norton) afflicted with Tourette's syndrome who investigates the murder of his only friend (Willis) – was shooting in Harlem on Thursday night (March 22) when emergency services were called to a rapidly spreading fire on set.

Tragically, firefighter Michael Davidson lost his life while tackling the blaze. He entered the building first and was later found unconscious by his colleagues and taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:16 a.m.

"They encountered heavy fire and they did the best they could,"NY Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro told NY Daily News.

"The fire continued to advance. Units were forced to back out of the building. Somehow while backing out of that building, firefighter Davidson was separated from the rest of the unit. The search ensued. Members tried desperately to find firefighter Davidson and when they did, he was unconscious.

"Despite the best efforts of the members of our fire fighting forces, EMS and here at the hospital, they were unable to revive Michael and he perished."

The producers of Motherless Brooklyn also released a statement, expressing their "deepest condolences" for Davidson's family.

"Our production was towards the end of our working day and had dozens of people working on site, when our crew noticed that smoke was coming into our set and into other parts of the building from below us," they said in a statement.

"As soon as we noticed smoke coming up into our set, our crew immediately alerted the fire department and began alerting residents of the building even as we evacuated our cast and crew."

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