A fire broke out in the cellar of 45 White, between Church and Franklin Place, last night — the FDNY got the call at 11:45p. Firefighters had it under control by 3:45a, but by then it had damaged much of the building as well as the neighboring building — 41 White — and left two firefighters with minor injuries. The buildings are residential except for the ground floor and basement. Fire marshals are still investigating the cause.

L. sent over the photos, and I spoke to longtime Tribeca fitness trainer Oscar Smith, whose business has been in the basement since 2011. He found out about the fire when he arrived for work this morning.

“It looked like a bomb hit the building,” he said. The firemen at the scene told him they are still determining if the building is structurally safe. He said that neighbors smelled smoke and successfully evacuated from the building. “It’s just shocking — and I feel much more badly for the residents upstairs.”

Tribeca Lofts is a six-story rental building from 1868 with a classic Tribeca cast-iron facade. It’s a beauty.

The Tennis Elbow gallery is on the east side on the ground floor; they opened there in 2019. Asya Geisberg has the western side and took that space just under a year ago. The folks at Church Street School for Music & Art, in the building next door, said they did not sustain any damage — just a little smoke that they are airing out today.