A four-alarm fire torched four buildings and briefly trapped several firefighters on a burning roof in Jersey City's Greenville neighborhood yesterday.
Onlookers watched in horror as the three firefighters called out from the roof of the burning three-story home. As flames shot through the roof around them, a tower ladder was extended and the firefighters clambered aboard, escaping without injury.
The fire began just after 11 a.m. in the home of a Jersey City police detective at 90 Randolph Ave., at the corner of Claremont Avenue, firefighters said. It eventually spread to three other buildings before it could be extinguished, sending thick plumes of black smoke high into the sky over Greenville.
The fire in all four buildings was out by about 1 p.m., Johnson said. Three firefighters and one civilian were sent to Jersey City Medical Center for treatment of smoke inhalation.
