LOWER MANHATTAN (PIX11) -- Because it was on the roof of a skyscraper under construction, a floor-wide fire in Lower Manhattan Wednesday was visible for miles.

Hard work by nearly 80 firefighters and EMTs got the blaze under control, but its location -- just steps away from the World Trade Center site -- left many of the thousands of people in the Financial District concerned that this wasn't just any fire.

"Right to 9/11, another episode," said John Morales, a security guard at the building across the street, about where his mind went as soon as he saw the flames.

"[It's] unfortunate," he continued, "[but] as a New Yorker, that's what we expect."

Images of the blaze were captivating, in the worst way. On top of the 72-story building, apparently from the cone of a utility unit, flames and smoke billowed up to the sky.

Jovanni Roman, a worker on the building that's still under construction, was working on the roof when the fire broke out.

"Once we saw that we had guys up there," he said, "We didn't even take the tools. We were like, 'Just go!'"

Chris Alvarez, another construction worker, was on a floor just below the roof, next to Carlos Suarez, a co-worker, when the fire broke out.

"Right when we saw [the blaze]," he said, "the first concern is getting out of the building, safely. Me and my partner were going down the stairs and yelling, 'Not a drill! Fire! Get out, get out, get out!'"

The reality of the emergency was not lost on the many people who work in the area.

Kim Baum works in an office in 4 World Trade, on the World Trade Center campus, just a few dozen yards away from where the fire was, at 125 Greenwich St.

Baum said that many people she knows feel the same way she did upon seeing the necessary fire department response.

"In close proximity to the World Trade Center campus," she said, "it tends to be, you know, a trigger for a lot of people here."

Jovanni Roman, the construction worker who'd been on the rooftop when the fire broke out, agreed.

"Everybody's going to get nervous," he said, even a seasoned worker on high-rise structures in Lower Manhattan, he said. "Yeah, of course," he said.

Minutes into the fire emergency, which began around 9:20 a.m., NYPD counterterrorism officers were dispatched to the scene. It was apparently an added precaution.

A police department spokesperson expressed appreciation that nobody got hurt in the emergency but said that the NYPD had no comment about the deployment of counterterrorism officers to the scene.