A huge column of thick, black smoke rose above the northern New Jersey-New York City metropolitan area on the afternoon of January 31st, as a fire consumed a trucking repair business in Kearny, New Jersey.The thick smoke blocked out view of the Pulaski Skyway, which connects Newark, Kearny and Jersey City. Traffic had to be temporarily stopped from using the skyway during the height of the multiple-alarm fire.
Around 2 p.m., a police dispatcher received a call of tires burring at the trucking business on Second Street, in the South Kearny industrial section of town.
Engine 4 arrived to find a fire that involved a one-story, peaked roof structure with trucks inside. Besides trucks, Deputy Chief Osborn later told the media that the building contained tires, parts, welding compressors, and other assorted materials.
Second and third alarms were struck, bringing in mutual aid companies to the scene. As the black smoke continued to rise, explosions could be heard inside the structure from the trucks’ fuel tanks.
Employees evacuated the building and firefighters began a defensive operation. Master streams included deck guns from Engine’s 4 and 3, Tower 2, Jersey City Ladder 9, and East Newark Ladder 2.
As thick smoke continued to rise, on this day of below freezing temperatures, a fourth alarm was sounded for additional resources. Mutual aid units that operated at the scene, besides the ones already mentioned, came from Harrison, Bayonne, Hoboken, North Arlington, and the North Hudson Regional Fire Department.
Handlines and master streams pounded the building as a partial roof collapse occurred. As the sun started to set, progress was being made on the fire. Despite the cold and slippery conditions, only one firefighter was injured during the height of the blaze as a door fell on his shoulder. He was taken to a near by hospital for treatment.
The Jersey City Gong Club canteen truck operated at the scene serving ice covered firefighters with warm refreshments.
The remains of the building were demolished and the last fire company left the scene on the afternoon of February 1st. A member of the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety was at the scene as the flames were being brought under control to assist in investigating the cause.
See more photos from this incident HERE.
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