Two Jersey City families were homeless last night after a two-alarm fire ripped through the top floor of their three-story building and threatened to spread to an attached building, Fire Capt. Andrew Johnson said.
Firefighters responded to the apartment building on Berkley Place, off Tonnelle Avenue, on a 12:24 p.m. alarm and called a second alarm immediately after seeing smoke coming from the cockloft and a rear window, Johnson said.
Investigators said an unlicensed plumber had been repairing pipes in a second-floor bathroom and accidentally ignited material inside a wall. The man removed insulation from the wall, and, believing the fire was extinguished, left the building to buy a sandwich, Johnson.
A short time later the fire reignited and crawled upward inside the wall until it was noticed, but by that point flames were blowing out a rear second-floor window and back into a third-floor window, Johnson said.
