Photo: Paterson Retired Firefighters FacebookOn Dec. 10, 1968, an arson fire swept the Midtown Hotel and killed six people. The hotel rooms were located on the second story of a row of shops at 2 Park Avenue in downtown Paterson. The fire at Box 141 went to a general alarm. About 20 people lived in the hotel, many of them elderly transients, according to an Associated Press dispatch. Police Sergeant Stanley Nessen said he convinced about 10 people not to jump from the ledge and they were rescued by firefighters. Deputy Police Chief Solomon Reines said there had been a "neighborhood vendetta" against occupants of the hotel, scene of an earlier fire.
