Row of Buildings Ravaged by Fire in Butler, NJ

Rebecca Heath

nj.com

(TNS)

A large fire in Butler caused significant damage to a row of buildings on Main Street Thursday.

Authorities responded to a structure fire involving multiple buildings, said Lt. Jorge Reyes of the Butler Police Department. Several agencies were called to help extinguish the blaze.

No injuries have been reported, police said.

Video captured this morning shows smoke rising from the buildings as crews worked at the scene.

Meghan Walsh, a business owner whose shop, The Charmed Collective, was located in the building that sustained the most severe damage, said she broke her lease on March 1, just a month before the fire.

“I’m still processing it,” said Walsh, 37, of Butler. “I feel awful for the other business owners that were affected and the families that were displaced.

“I was supposed to still be in there, and I trusted my gut and left,” she added. “And now this happened. So, it’s kind of just a whirlwind of emotions.”

Wash said her lease was set to end on May 1, but issues with the landlord failing to make repairs in the old building pushed her to leave Main Street early.

She said the building likely dated back more than 100 years, noting she wasn’t surprised a fire occurred, but the timing was unexpected.

While there were no apartments above her shop, the buildings on either side — housing Akoya Sushi and Butler News & Candy Shop — had tenants and were also damaged.

“I grew up in this town, so to watch such a big chunk of Main Street go up in flames, it was just very disheartening,” Walsh said.

She said she went to the scene around midnight and returned in the afternoon, where she watched crews start to demolish the building that had housed her business.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately released.

The investigation remains ongoing.

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