Fire leaves several families homeless in Newark and investigators are not ruling out arson.
This row of houses all shared the same roof and that proved to be a tragic design flaw in the homes when a fire at a vacant home at 95 Napoleon street quickly spread all the way down to 87 Napoleon. In all, ten homes were destroyed and dozens of people are now homeless. Now, the sad process of moving out has already begun.
The fire was reported at 1:20 a.m. this morning and by that time, at least six homes had smoke and flames shooting out of their second floor windows. The firefighters had to break through the second floor ceilings in ten homes on Napoleon Street. Firefighters saved some residents but others credit a neighbor Delio Coutinho with saving their lives. He rang their doorbells and knocked on their doors warning them of the fire that was quickly spreading down the block.
The sound of smoke alarms alerted Coutinho who ran across the street to help.
Delio Coutinho, Neighbor: "I saw the smoke go across all of the crawl attics. That is when I came running out and started knocking on doors."
The fire spread through a structural element that is a space between the second floor ceiling and the roof.
Chief Joe DeMasi, Newark Fire Department: "We got here and there was heavy fire coming out of the windows and with that space, its going to spread from one building right down to all the buildings that are adjoined to one another."
Homeowners watched from the sidewalks as their possessions went up in smoke.
Angelo Riviero, Fire Victim: "All the ceilings are torn apart. There is water all over the place. All of my stuff was in there."
The extent of the damage is staggering. Like many 100-year-old row houses in Newarks Ironbound neighborhood, the ten homes on Napoleon Street share a common crawl space that created a tunnel for the fire to travel from one house to the next.
Augusto Amador, Newark City Councilman: "Now we have a major problem and we should look into other areas of the community where this situation exists and take precautions."
Because of the heroic actions of the Newark firefighters and that neighbor who went door-to-door ringing doorbells, no one was hurt.
Countinho: "Everybody helped out but really it was the firemen."
It took firefighters several hours to contain this fire that started in a vacant home that was for sale. The house was under-going renevations.
The reason the fire only spread in one direction and it wasn't worse was due to the fact that on the other side of 95 Napoleon Street there is a firewall. It is a structure that did not exist in the ten houses that were destroyed. Firefighters are investigating the cause of this fire and they have not ruled out arson.
