Story and photos by Ron Jeffers
A fire tore through a large three-story wood frame dwelling in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, on April 21, keeping firefighters in the eastern Bergen County area busy all evening. First-arriving police officers and firefighters teamed up to rescue a trapped occupant and her pet cat.
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Volunteer firefighters were toned out at 9:23 p.m. for a report of smoke in the building at 40 Oakdene Avenue. This was followed by a fire radio report of a confirmation of a fire in the building by arriving police units. Chief of Department Ted Tarabokija arrived and found fire extending up the C-D corner of the structure, involving all floors. Police reported a woman inside the house. The chief immediately ordered a second-alarm, bringing in mutual aid companies from near by departments.
A woman was trapped on the second-floor. Police Officers Gabe Marciano and Brett Benevento obtained a ladder from a neighbor and placed it up to the roof of the front, one-story porch extension and climbed up. The officers, along with Chief Tarabokija, convinced the frightened woman to come out of the second-floor window and onto the porch roof, as she was being surround by thick, acrid smoke. Firefighter Pete Giunchini, of Ladder Co. 1, maneuvered the aerial ladder passed overhead power lines and onto the roof. Fire Lt.’s Chris Neary and Charles Diaz, along with Chief Tarabokija, assisted the woman and her pet down the ladder to safety, along with the police officers.
Interior crews made a push with hand lines in the balloon style constructed home, but fire was dominant in the walls on all floors. As conditions began to deteriorate, the evocation order was given and master streams went to work. This included ladder pipes from Ladder 1 and truck companies from Fairview and Leonia.
Low-banking smoke consumed the neighborhood and, at times, you could only see the flashing warning lights from apparatus visible on the block.
The fire burned off the C-D upper-floor area of the building and extended into a rear one-story extension. Deep seated fire in the walls and ceiling in this section kept firefighters busy after midnight. After pulling ceilings and walls here, in a labor intensive operation, streams were shut down for the purpose of letting the fire vent and come to firefighters. When it did, master streams and hand lines went to work to extinguish the last section of fire.
Firefighter James Giunchini was treated at the scene for a cut to his hand as the result of falling glass.
Mutual aid units that operated at the scene, besides the departments mention, included Ridgefield, Fort Lee, Edgewater, Palisades Park and Hackensack.
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