Firefighters are still dealing with the five-alarm fire that destroyed a 408-unit apartment complex in Edgewater, NJ yesterday. While the fire is under control, hotspots and smoke can still be seen from the smoldering remains of the Avalon Edgewater. And why did the sprawling building go up like a matchbox? "Lightweight construction" materials.
The fire started in the afternoon, and management sent residents an email about a "minor fire" at 6:26 p.m. But after a few hours, the fire was out of control. Five hundred firefighters, including ones from neighboring NJ towns and NYC, were on the scene. Edgewater Fire Department Chief Thomas Jacobson told reporters, "It was in the floors and it just traveled. We had crews on three floors. We had the task of multiple rescues on different floors because the smoke had traveled through the building and we had to evacuate people."
Amazingly, only two civilians and two firefighters suffered minor injuries. No serious injuries or deaths were reported, but officials admitted that many pets probably perished. Jacobson explained, "The hallways are banked floor to ceiling with smoke. These guys have to claw their way in the dark, trying to find these apartments and get these people out."
The building did have sprinklers, but that wasn't enough. From the Bergen Record:
The building has lightweight construction with a truss style of roof framing that allows sections to be built of lighter lumber on the ground, then hoisted into place. The method has the advantages of being faster and less expensive to install, but the disadvantage of making it more difficult to fight fires.
“If it was made out of concrete and cinder block, we wouldn’t have this problem,” Jacobson said.
Investigators are looking into the possibility of arson, but Edgewater Police Chief William Skidmore said, "The arson squad responding is not an indication of anything suspicious or that we believe there’s a problem. A fire of this magnitude is an automatic response for the arson squad."
The Record reports, "The police chief said the cause of the fire was not known, but officials are investigating reports that plumbers had been working in the area where it seemed to have started — in a wall of an apartment on the first floor at the south end of the structure."
Officials also said investigators would be looking into a series of explosive pops, accompanied by flashes of blue flame, as firefighters struggled to gain control of the massive wall of flame that forced them over and over to retreat from different sections of the building’s interior. Even though the gas to the building was turned off early in the effort, there could have been pockets of it left in the pipes inside, officials said.
Bergen County Executive James Tedesco said 240 apartments were gone, with 168 saved. About 500 residents are permanently displaced, and hundreds more from the area were also among those evacuated (their homes must be inspected before they can return).
The Avalon Edgewater offered one-, two- and three-bedrooms apartments, starting at $2,100/month. The complex offered a fitness center, a pool and a clubhouse. One resident, Edward, a photographer who works in NYC, told the Record, "Coming from Manhattan, it’s easy to get impressed." He says he was on the bus back home when he heard about the fire and couldn't save anything, including his 13-year-old Jack Russell terrier mix, who was left at home. He's not sure if the dog was rescued. "That's the worst part."
