A high-rise office complex in the heart of midtown Manhattan was the scene of a major fire on the night of January 31, 1993. It was the most destructive high-rise fire in New York City in more than a decade, resulting in direct property damage of more than $10 million and a much larger loss due to business interruption and secondary effects. The fire, which originated on the sixth floor, spread to the seventh and was extending into the eighth floor before it was controlled. These floors are at the maximum reach of outside aerial equipment and elevated master streams, which were used successfully to control upward propagation of the fire. If the fire had originated at or above the tenth floor, it would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, to stop the successive involvement of higher floors, even with the rapid response of more than 400 fire suppression personnel.