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A firefighter is still in critical condition after he fell 40 feet through a shaft behind a Harlem apartment building that erupted in flames on Friday afternoon.

Eight other people, including three more firefighters, also sustained injuries during the massive fire that partially engulfed the six-floor building.

The FDNY said it responded to the call about a fire at 529 West 145th St., between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway, around 2:40 p.m. on Friday. It took more than 200 firefighters and other emergency workers around four hours to extinguish the six-alarm inferno. The FDNY is still investigating the fire's cause.

Fire officials described a chaotic scene in which flames could be seen escaping from the windows of the building's second floor, where the fire began. The flames rapidly spread to the third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors, FDNY Chief of Operations Kevin Woods said at a Friday press conference.

Woods described a "labor-intensive" and "physically demanding" battle to contain the flames.

"These old buildings have many many voids. When fire got into these voids, when it got into the sixth floor, it started blowing out of the top-floor windows again," Woods said.

The firefighter who fell was transported to Harlem Hospital, where he remains with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Four people, including the three other injured firefighters, were transported to Columbia University's Irving Medical Center while another person went to Weill Cornell Medical Center. Three other people refused medical attention.

The Red Cross did not immediately respond to questions about how many residents were displaced by the fire.