Progress Report: New Jersey

April 1, 2015
Multi-alarm fire engulfs Edgewater apartment complex

EDGEWATER, NJ, JAN. 21, 2015 – A multi-alarm fire in the Avalon at Edgewater luxury apartment complex was transmitted at about 4:30 P.M. A fire in a first-floor apartment spread rapidly to the floor above and then through voids in walls and floors of the lightweight wood-construction building. A defensive attack was ordered when conditions deteriorated and fire was rapidly spreading throughout the four-story complex.

Mutual aid was called in from numerous Bergen County fire departments and the North Hudson Regional Fire Department in Hudson County. FDNY Marine 1 and Jersey City Marine 1 were dispatched and the FDNY boat went to work supplying large volumes of water through the Union County Neptune System from the Hudson River. Master streams included tower ladders, ladder pipes, deck guns and a squirt.

The complex contained more than 400 apartments and an estimated 1,000 people were displaced. No serious injuries were reported and all occupants and most pets were accounted for. Edgewater firefighters removed several occupants with ground ladders. Handlines and master streams were directed on dwellings on the opposite side of the street as burning embers and radiant heat became an issue.

The mayor stated the fire was contained around 11 P.M. There was heavy smoke from the ruins the next morning. sending a huge cloud of smoke across the Hudson River into Manhattan.

The site was the scene of another multiple-alarm fire in 2000, when the complex was under construction and not occupied. Embers, however, set fires to dwellings across the street, displacing residents.

Ron Jeffers

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