05/17/13 | 21:30 | HOUSE FIRE | ALLENTOWN | BOX 2744 | 2339 FAIRVIEW ST | PORCH FIRE EXTENDED INTO ROOF OF SINGLE STORY S/F/D | 2ND ALARM EQUIV : : 05/17/13 | 17:40 | APARTMENT FIRE | ALLENTOWN BOX 2444 | 304 S. FOUNTAIN ST | FIRE IN ATTIC OF 2-STY O/M/D | 1 L/S/O : : 05/17/13 | 17:00 | FATAL ACCIDENT | NORTH WHITEHALL | PARK AVE & OAKWOOD LA | INTERSECTION CLOSED DUE TO MOTOR CYCLE ACCIDENT....
Elizabeth, NJ - Engine 6 caught fire inside the firehouse located at 472 Catherine Street just after 2:00 AM Sunday morning.
Engine 6 called dispatch and reported a signal 11 at the quarters of Engine 6 with the rig on fire inside. Engines 1, 3, 8, Ladder 2, 3, Rescue 1 and Deputy 2 responded.
Deputy 2 arrived and transmitted a working fire. Engine 3 stretched a second hand line. The grates on the windows were ordered to be taken off and windows vented on the Bravo side by Rescue 1. Ladder 3 was ordered to the roof to open up. Interior crews reported heavy smoke in the attic.
A foam line was requested to the interior by Engine 3. Engine 7 cleared from Hillside and was requested by Deputy 2 to respond to the fire as the F.A.S.T. company.
As the fire extended into the Attic of the station, command transmitted a second alarm, bringing in 1 Engine and 1 Ladder from Newark.
A heavy duty wrecker was called to pull Engine 6 out of the station. By 2:40 AM, crews were making good progress and had the fire knocked down in the attic.
Within an hour of the original call, the fire was under control.
Click here for ABC 7 Eye Witness News article about the fire.
Newark, NJ - Box 1595 was transmitted around 01:41 hours Friday morning for a house fire with people trapped at 31 Brookdale Avenue in the Vailsburg section of the city.
Firefighters arrived minutes later and found heavy fire in two 3-story wood-frames. The original fire building is a vacant dwelling.
Searches of the dwellings were delayed because of the heavy fire conditions and the quick spread of the fire to two other exposures. Partial collapse of the rear of the two original fire buildings also hampered searches.
Engine companies also had problems of their own. Many hydrants were either dead or had low water pressure, causing some problems in getting water to the fire.
Fire officials found a total of 5 bodies in the burned out home. A 3 year-old and a 4 year-old, a teenager and an adult man are among the dead. A signal 200 (D.O.A.) was transmitted a couple of hours into the fire when crews found two bodies in the rear and one body in the middle of the dwelling. These victims were found on the third floor. The exposure dwelling had six families living in it at the time of the fire.
The integrity of the structures is posing a problem for firefighters searching for more victims.
The fire is a signal 100, possible arson as this is the 4th fire in the area this week.
The fire was brought under control shortly after 04:00.
We took the chase vehicle (F.I.R.V.) up to Brooklyn for a night of chasing Thursday. The day was very slow and the past few nights were too for the 5 boroughs in New York City. But we figured, hey, its gotta break soon.
We arrived around 18:15 hours. And yes, the fire radios were dead. At 20:15, we followed Battalion 41 and Tower Ladder 113 to an odor of gas in a multiple dwelling.
At 22:48, Box 2560 was transmitted for a manhole smoking at 1322 58th Street near 13th Avenue. We arrived to black smoke pushing from a manhole. There was another one at the other end of the block also smoking.
Battalion 40 held the fire to a 2 and 2 using Engines 282, 247 and Ladders 148 and 149 until ConEd arrived. Once ConEd emergency vehicles arrived, the FDNY took up and went home.
At 00:36 hours Friday morning, a report of an explosion in front of 678 East 58th Street. The 58 battalion arrived and found a transformer on a pole smoking. ConEd was notified to respond.
Taking a break in Coney Island around 01:45, Newark transmitted a box for a house fire with people trapped. Deputy arrived to 2 frame dwellings fully-involved and spreading to both exposures. The second and third alarms were quickly transmitted. By the end of the night, firefighters would have found 4 bodies in the burned out buildings.
The full story and video on this fire will be coming up next as we will do a seperate article on this fire.
Elizabeth, NJ - Around 20:30 hours Tuesday night, Elizabeth Fire Engine 6 arrived on location of 597 Monroe Avenue and reported heavy fire in 3 buildings.
A second-alarm was immediately transmitted. Mutual companies were called in to assist.
Firefighters were having water pressure issues, and 5 inch supply lines were laid in from 6 blocks away. Numerous tower ladders were in operation as fire consumed the roof of many dwellings.
By 22:00 hours, the fire eventually extended to an apartment building at the corner of Monroe and Fairmount Avenues. The fire consumed the roof of that building before the fire was brought under control.
Newark, NJ - As we first reported last night on our Facebook page while buffing in New York, Mayor Booker of Newark, NJ rescued his neighbor from the second floor of her house.
Newark Fire was dispatched to the Mayors house for a reported house fire. Battalion 4 arrived and had heavy fire on the top floor of a two-story frame. All companies were ordered to bring water to the fire and all companies stretched in.
Before the FD arrived, Mayor Booker arrived home to see his neighbors house on fire. He rushed in and went to the second floor, but as the heat and flames were getting bigger, he thought to himself, he'll have to jump out a window because he thought he was going to get trapped. But then he heard the yells of the woman in a back bedroom. He grabbed her and he carried her down the stairs and when they got outside, they both collapsed.
The mayors security guard thought that this will be the end of his career for not protecting the mayor. 5 people were taken to the hospital where the mayor was treated for smoke inhalation and a cut on the hand.
Here is an excerpt from the Star-Ledger:
"I just grabbed her and whipped her out of the bed," Booker said in recounting the fire. Booker told The Star-Ledger he also suffered second-degree burns on his hand.
The fire started in a two-story building on Hawthorne Avenue in the Upper Clinton Hill neighborhood, shortly before the mayor arrived home after a television interview with News 12 New Jersey.
Five people were taken to the hospital for treatment: the mayor, a woman from the house and three members of his security detail. The woman was listed in stable condition at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston with burns to her back and neck.
One of his security officers, Detective Alex Rodriguez, tried to stop him from going back in.
Rodriguez had been posted at Booker’s house in the mayor’s absence. The other two detectives, Duran Santos and Al-Tariq Whitley, were accompanying Booker from the television interview.
"Now we actually get into a fight because his job is to protect me," Booker said of Rodriguez.
Booker said when he reached the second floor, he was engulfed in flames and smoke.
"I suddenly had the realization that I can’t find this woman." Booker said. "I look behind me and see the flames and I think "I’m not going to get out of here. Suddenly I was at peace with the fact that I was going to jump out the window."
Hoboken, NJ - Staff Photographer Dennis Wetherhold did an awesome job capturing this 4-alarm fire that started around 19:00 hours. Dennis was in Jersey City shooting the 5-alarm fire when this one broke out.
It took firefighters well over 4 hours to bring this fire under control at 300 Washington Street. The fire ran the walls and into the cockloft of the 5-story occupied apartment building.
Dennis gained access to the roof of a building across the street on 3rd Street to shoot some spectacular photos. Firefighters were on the roof hitting hot embers with a water can.
Jersey City, NJ - Staff photographer Dennis Wetherhold responded to Jersey City early Sunday evening for this 5-alarm fire on Monticello Avenue and Fairmount Avenue for a fire in a Laundromat.
A minor collapse of the building on the BRAVO side left one firefighter injured.
When he arrived, the bulk of the fire was knocked down. However, a major fire was developing right across the city limits in Hoboken.
This fire was already at 3-alarms when Dennis responded from Jersey City.
Elizabeth, NJ - A fire burned in the basement of a huge factory at 819 Newark Avenue in the city.
The fire started early in the afternoon. It came in as a car fire within the building. The fire extended to the basement of the 5-story, 5000' x 2000' factory that was once home to the Berry Biscuit Company.
As the fire burned into the night, multiple alarms were transmitted and companies from all over northern New Jersey came in to assist.
The fire chief said the fire will burn probably into the dawn hours. The sprinkler system is not effective and the foam is not working that they are pumping into the basement. The chief said the fire will only get bigger.
As always, we love fire buffing in northern New Jersey. We will be back for more!
All photos and videos on this site owned by Newsworking.org and/or Bill Rohrer or unless noted otherwise.
Reproduction of any kind is prohibited unless you have prior written permission from the owner.
Newsworking is an internet-based news media that focuses on presenting current emergency related news to the public. Some material may be graphic. Viewer discretion is advised. Information contained in articles should not be considered official and may contain inaccuracies, unless specifically cited.
