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Several Jewish homes in Williamsburg were targeted in an incident on Monday in which religious objects attached to residents' front doors were set on fire.

The burnings, which are being investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Department, took place on Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah, though police remain unsure of whether the day of religious observance was a factor in the crime.

“The Hate Crimes Task Force has been assigned to it and is treating it as a bias crime,” Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, told The New York Times. “The fact that they are all religious artifacts, we’re treating it as an anti-Semitic crime.”

The desecration took place at 85 Taylor Street, one of five buildings in the Taylor-Wythe Houses, a public housing community in Williamsburg. Police reported that 11 mezuzahs attached to apartment front doors were burned in the late afternoon on Monday.

According to the New York Daily News, the perpetrator began on the 13^th floor of the building and burned mezuzahs on several floors on his way downstairs. Authorities said the mezuzahs were likely burned with a lighter or a blowtorch.

Mezuzahs are important religious symbols of protection, especially for observant Jewish families, who attach them to the right side of front doorframes and in rooms throughout a home shortly after moving in. Mezuzahs are typically made of materials like ceramic or clay, and each contains a small scroll inscribed with Torah verses.

Residents of 85 Taylor Street and the surrounding buildings were deeply disturbed by the incident.

Miriam Schwartz, 75, a victim of the crime who lives on the third floor of the building, told the Daily News that this is the second time her mezuzah has been burned.

“This has to be stopped,” Ms. Schwartz said. “I’m always scared.”

Public advocate and New York mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio spoke out publically about the incident.

"Nothing but hatred can explain why someone would burn mezuzahs on Yom Hashoah, the day we remember the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust," Mr. de Blasio said in a statement on Monday. "This is a sickening act of prejudice that strikes at the very core of who we are as a city. Make no mistake, we will find those responsible."

A fire raging on Bond and President Streets last night. (Photo: Fabian Palencia)

New York City was battered by all of the elements Monday night and in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. After the flooding and winds from Hurricane Sandy reached their peak Monday evening, storm-related fires broke out throughout the five boroughs. The Observer was on the scene for two of these blazes in Brooklyn.

When we showed up at a paper recycling warehouse on Fifth Street and Second Avenue shortly just before 9 p.m., firefighters had already put out the flames. We asked Tom McCarthy, an FDNY battalion chief based in Red Hook, if he knew how many fires the department was dealing with in Brooklyn.

"The borough is alive, I'll put it that way," he said. "Numerous fires."

Less than an hour later, we saw a fire in a parking lot at Bond and President Street. A large R.V. in the lot was completely engulfed in flames and surrounded by firefighters. Witnesses said there had been multiple explosions coming from the vehicle. Within 10 minutes, the firefighters had the blaze under control. Before leaving, we saw Mr. McCarthy again.

"It's one of the busier nights in the department," he said.

Later on, we called the FDNY's press line to ask how many fires they had responded to this evening. A spokesman told us there were "over a dozen major fires." In Breezy Point, one six-alarm blaze has destroyed multiple homes. Though he said he didn't want to speculate, the FDNY spokesman said many of these fires were probably a result of the storm.

"It would seem that most of them are storm-related," he said, going on to cite several factors that contributed to the hot night in New York, "No one's there, escalation being a lot quicker due to our response times being slowed down, or gas problems."

View a video of the fire on Bond and President below as well as pictures taken by photographer Fabian Palencia.

After a huge response, no fire was found at 1 World Trade Center this morning. (Getty)

After about 45 minutes this morning, dozens of firefighters got a blaze under control on the 88th floor of 1 World Trade Center. The Fire Department did not yet know the cause of the fire, which only hit the one floor. There were no injuries reported, according to an FDNY spokesman.

The fire was reported a little before 8 a.m., and 84 firefighters from 26 units responded. That is not an unusual number for a high-rise blaze, according to the spokesman.

This was the second fire in the iconic building since June, when another small fire started one floor up, on the 89th. That incident also came early in the morning, when some wooden decking caught fire. The following month, another small fire started in the upper reaches of neighboring 4 World Trade Center.

The Port Authority has recently been cracking down on its construction workers, some of whom are known to go out and drink in local bars during their lunch break. They have also stepped up reminders about smoking onsite, which has been a big concern ever since 130 Liberty Street caught fire in 2008, killing two firefighters.

Update 8:52: A Port Authority spokesman, Steve Coleman, said there was no fire at 1 World Trade Center. A Fire Department spokesman confirms that it may simply have been "a welding incident."

"I’m not going to speculate like FDNY," Mr. Coleman said. "They searched the building and found no evidence of any fire."

Update 10:26: All clear. @WTCProgress, the Port Authority's official World Trade Center social media presence, just said "After a thorough search of #OneWTC & as reported by NYC OEM “FDNY has concluded their search with negative results (no fire found)." The account followed that up with this good bit of news: "No stoppage of work, no evacuation of the building, & no reported injuries. Work continues to move forward at #OneWTC & site."

An FDNY spokesman declined to say there had been no fire, saying their investigation is still ongoing. They expect to release their findings around noon.

Update: 12:55: "There was no false alarm," FDNY spokesman Jim Long said. "A lot of people have been saying that, but we received a call at 7:45 of smoke coming off the World Trade Center, our guys responded, and that's what they saw. So we investigated. After a full investigation, we determined it was caused by some welding going on on the 88th floor."

The Daily News says no injuries have been reported, and fireboats are currently battling the "massive, smoky fire" under a Harlem River bridge. A Metro-North spokesman said the cause of the fire has not been determined. Northbound trains are stuck in Grand Central and southbound trains are being held in the Bronx. Officials are currently talking about setting up shuttle service for financiers and others who otherwise would find themselves stranded in their pieds-a-terre.