More than half of the 76 loft apartments at 345 Eldert Street in Brooklyn were ordered to vacate their apartments last night by the Fire Department, according to an article yesterday at BuskwickBK.com by Jeremy Sapienza.

The Department of Buildings lists 345 Eldert, a former manufacturing building, as a legal residence, the article said, adding that "violations recorded recently include illegal and poorly built mezzanines, illegal plumbing, blocked sprinklers, and blocked egress."

Residents of the large loft building at 345 Eldert Street , home to artists for many years, have been served with a partial vacate order by the fire department. The tenants in 41 of the 76 units -- up to 160 people -- have been ordered to leave their apartments by 9pm tonight.

One resident, Kallie Weinkle, will be staying along with her three roommates with friends in unaffected units in the building, the article said, adding that she told BushwickBK that "the tenants were originally told that they would be able to stay in their units as long as the management paid eight fire sentries - two per floor - to keep watch 24 hours a day. Then today, 'the story changed,' Weinkle said. 'They slapped noticed on our doors saying our units were 'imminently perilous to life.'"

"Weinkle described a scene of chaos as the Carnegie demolition crew began tearing one of her two adjoining loft units apart; the other was declared safe. Later, a new set of inspectors said the half-demolished unit was actually fine, and it was in fact the second unit that was unsafe," the article said.

A press contact at the Red Cross told BushwickBK the organization has met with 85 tenants, and that 40 have accepted their offer of nearby motel rooms.

The building's management, Carnegie, was doing work inside the lofts after the FDNY visit, trying to get them up to code at which point "tenants on the floor above threw several rolls of paper out the window to the street below", which might not be the most helpful course of action, according to an article by Bilal Khan today at ny.curbed.com.

According to the article, one of the residents, Sean Kean has a website for the building where residents have been keeping us up to date with what's going on in 345 Eldert.

"Thank you Red Cross for all you do. As for the fire dept... well lets just say this sort of abrupt action has caused more damage than it prevents. Everyone was in a state of panic and confusion, our possessions and selves have been uprooted and tossed around and displaced....and there WASN'T ANY FIRE," according to the webite.