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Photos and story by Ron Jeffers.
North Bergen (NJ) – A fast-moving fire consumed a one-story, 75- x 200-foot furniture store and warehouse at the corner of Kennedy Boulevard and 13th Street on December 21st in North Bergen, New Jersey. The North Hudson Regional Fire Department’s communication center dispatched a full assignment to that location shortly before 11:30 a.m.
Chief of Department Frank Montagne was in the area and the first to arrive. There was heavy fire in the rear in a rear garage area on the 13th Street side. The chief ordered a second-alarm. About a half dozen people inside the building escaped, safely. A huge column of smoke was already rising into the sky, visible in Manhattan.
Hand lines and master streams were set up. Tower Ladder 3 was ordered to the 13th Street side where the bulk of the fire was visible. Engine 1, also on 13th Street, used its deck gun. Numerous hand lines were also used. There was a truss roof placard visible above the garage doors on the side street.
Truckees were performing a trench cut on the roof to the east of the fire, but flames rapidly raced passed them below, and they were ordered off of the roof. A third-alarm was struck.
Montagne told the media that within 15 to 20 minutes the building was fully involved. Heavy fire blew out of the display windows, on Kennedy Boulevard. The radiant heat could be felt by spectators on the opposite side of the wide boulevard. The flames also threatened Ladder Co. 1’s apparatus, that had its aerial ladder set up. The ladder was bed and the rig moved away from the building, but not before it sustained radiant heat damage to the entire officer’s side.
A fourth-alarm was transmitted, as Squad 7’s squirt apparatus was moved to the front of the building on the boulevard and put into operation. Engine Co. 9, at the corner of the boulevard and 13th Street, utilized their deck gun. A major collapse brought the building down into a pile of rubble.
The adjacent exposure to the south, on Kennedy Boulevard was a boarded up two-story structure, filled with rubber tires. Firefighters forced entry and an aggressive attack prevent fire from extending into this structure. Several buildings were evacuated as a precaution. Officials said seven families were temporarily displaced.
A fifth alarm was transmitted using fire companies from Jersey City and Kearny at the scene. Because of burning overhead lines, there was also a power outage in the area.
As the dispatcher notified the incident commander that the fire was now four hours in duration, Deputy Chief Charles Thomas placed the fire under control. Just a frame of the building remained.
