Upload image using multer to Firebase Storage issue

Hello I am trying to upload an image using Node.js/multer to firebase storage (note: I know I can do it client side but this needs to work server side). I am running into this issue:

TypeError: storage.ref is not a function

I tried solving by adding import 'firebase/storage'; as other Stack Overflows have suggested but that did not work.

Router:

import {FirebaseManager, FirebaseReferences} from '../database_manager';

router.post("/:uuid/image", upload.single("file"), (req, res) => {
    const tempPath = req.file.path;
    const ext = path.extname(req.file.originalname).toLowerCase();

    if (ext === ".png" || ext === ".jpg") {
        FirebaseManager.upload_image(FirebaseReferences.Images, 'test', req.file)
        res.status(200).contentType("text/plain").end("File uploaded!");
    } else {
        try {
            fs.unlinkSync(tempPath);
        } catch (err) {
            res.status(400).send(err.message);
        }
        res.status(403).contentType("text/plain").end("Only .png/jpg files are allowed!");
    }
  }
);

Firebase Manager:

var admin = require('firebase-admin');
import firebase = require('firebase/app');
import 'firebase/database';
import 'firebase/storage';

// Access the real-time database in the initialized application.
const FirebaseApp: firebase.app.App = admin.initializeApp({
  credential: admin.credential.cert({
    projectId: '',
    clientEmail: '',
    privateKey: ''
  }),
  databaseURL: 'https://.firebaseio.com'
});
const db: firebase.database.Database = FirebaseApp.database();
const storage: firebase.storage.Storage = FirebaseApp.storage();

export function upload_image(ref: FirebaseReferences, filename: string,
        file: any): string {

        var upload_loc = ref.toString() + '/' + filename;
        var upload_ref = storage.ref().child(upload_loc);

        upload_ref.put(file).then(function(snapshot) {
            snapshot.ref.getDownloadURL().then(function(downloadURL) {
                console.log('File available at', downloadURL);
                return downloadURL;
            });
        }, function(error) {
            console.log("FirebaseManager, upload_image(): " + error);
            throw error;
        });

        return 'error';
}

Also will uploading a Express.Multer.File type to Storage work? If not how can I convert that type to a type of File?

node 10.2.1
multer 1.4.1
firebase ^5.7.3
firebase-admin ^6.5.0

from Upload image using multer to Firebase Storage issue