MARCAL PAPER - 2019

UPDATED AUG. 19, 2019

Photo: Elmwood Park Fire Department

Photo: New Jersey 101.5

Track of smoke on weather radar 

On Jan. 30, 2019, flames leveled the Marcal Paper Company mill in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, toppling its landmark neon sign. Winds and bitter cold hindered firefighting operations and showered brands on neighboring blocks. Fire departments from across North Jersey provided mutual aid. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy described the blaze as "an extraordinary calamity," adding "thank God no injuries."

_____


PRESS RELEASE - June 7, 2019

Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced the results of the investigation into the fire at the Marcal Paper Company, 1 Market Street, Elmwood Park, NJ, which occurred on Thursday January 31, 2019. The investigation was conducted by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office under the direction of Chief Robert Anzilotti, the Elmwood Park Police Department under the direction of Chief Michael Foligno, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, National Response Team.

The fire destroyed 31 of the 36 buildings located in the Marcal Paper Company Complex. The investigation was a large undertaking, which included experts in the origin and cause of fire, interviewing, and technical experts in varying aspects of building construction. The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office requested the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, National Response Team, to assist with the investigation, specifically the cause and origin of the fire.

The location of the fire’s origin was determined to be in the northeastern most building on the southern side of the railroad tracks, known as building #41. The fire started in the storage area of section PM2, which stored large roles of paper used to make paper products for the company. Although the location of the origin of the fire was determined, the investigators were unable to determine the exact cause of the fire due to the extensive damage.

In addition to the scene investigation, investigators conducted over one hundred interviews of Marcal Paper employees, outside workers, neighbors and witnesses prior to the fire, as well as witnesses that observed different stages of the fire. The Marcal Paper Company fully cooperated with law enforcement in the investigation.

There is presently no indication that the fire was intentionally set. The cause of the fire cannot be determined at this time, and it will be classified as undetermined, pending further information.

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PUBLIC NOTICE - Feb. 1, 2019

Dear Elmwood Park Residents:

Please be advised that since shortly after the fire began, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection in conjunction with the Bergen County Health Department were notified and sent representatives to the fire scene to conduct monitoring and testing for hazardous materials.

Air quality monitoring was and is currently being conducted around the site and in the surrounding residential neighborhood.

At no time have there been any readings above any level of concern regarding air quality.

We recommend that residents keep their windows closed as potential flare ups may cause smoke to migrate off-site towards the residential area.

Updates will be provided if needed or if the situation changes.

Sincerely,
Michael Foligno
Chief of Police
Borough Administrator

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COMPANY STATEMENT - Feb. 4, 2019

On behalf of Marcal, our associates and management, we wanted to express our deepest appreciation for the outpouring of support we have received from the community. This has lifted and encouraged our spirits throughout this tragic event more than you will ever know. 

We also extend our most sincere thanks and admiration to all the hard-working firefighters and first responders—the men and women who have been working tirelessly at the site of our mill since Wednesday night—despite bitterly cold temperatures and life threatening conditions. 

Given the ongoing response work, we have not yet been able to access the site to truly understand the full magnitude of destruction—or what our future path forward might be for our company. 

While we remain hopeful, your continued support is dearly needed, now more than ever. If you would like to continue to show us your support, please use and ask for our Marcal Pro line of professional paper products in your restaurants, hotels, hospitals, schools and businesses. These products are still being produced by Marcal, in our remaining Northeast facility, and will be critical to the future survival and rebuilding of our iconic brand and company. 

Meanwhile, we’re hard at work fostering employee needs and getting our teams back to work as quickly as possible. With that in mind, we’ve made arrangements with a local recruiting company that is offering assistance with placement. 

ST. BONAVENTURE LYCEUM - 1934

Photo: patersonfirehistory.com

On May 7, 1934, Paterson firefighters John O'Neill of Engine 9 and Allen Saal of Truck 3 were fatally injured at a fire at the St. Bonaventure Lyceum and parish hall.

"Collapsing walls of the two and a half story brick structure caused all of the injuries," the Paterson Evening News reported. "When they fell they swept firemen from their ladders burying them and their companies on the ground under debris."

Eight other men were hurt, with ​John Murphy, the chief's driver, and John Colligan, a police patrolman, suffering serious injuries.

"Three ambulances, taxicabs and private automobiles carried the injured firemen to hospitals," the Evening News said.

O'Neill died May 8 at St. Joseph's Hospital from a fractured skull and internal injuries. Saal died May 9 at the Paterson General Hospital of internal injuries.

The fire at Box 413 - at Carlisle Avenue and Ramsey Street - went to three alarms.

HOTEL MANHATTAN, PATERSON

Jan. 22, 1938 blaze at Hotel Manhattan.
Photo: patersonfirehistory.com 

Major fires struck Paterson's Hotel Manhattan on three occasions, one of which resulted it the death of a firefighter.

On May 24, 1920, firefighters used life nets to catch guests leaping from the hotel after a blaze broke out in its laundry room.

Several people were injured, including Firefighter William Smith who ``suffered a severe laceration when he fell 50 feet from a ladder after he had carried a woman and a man to safety,'' according to The New York Times said.

Box 14 at 237-243 Market Street was struck at 2:50 a.m. and went to three alarms.

On March 31, 1931 and again on Jan. 22, 1938, the hotel was the scene of three-alarm  fires,  according to patersonfirehistory.com.

At the 1931 blaze, David Johnstone, engineer of Engine 8, was uncoupling hose when a car plowed through fire lines and struck him down, according to the Paterson Evening News.

The driver, Anthony DeStefano, was charged with reckless driving and atrocious assault.

Johnstone died April 2 at the Paterson General Hospital.

Four other firefighters - Andrew Swords and Edward Heintzeman of Engine 6, Edward Christensen and John Hill of Engine 9 - were overcome by smoke at the 1931 fire, according to the Paterson Morning Call.

LODI CHEMICAL ALLEY - 1995

Explosion at Napp Technologies in Lodi  April 21, 1995 

Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, Aug. 14, 1973 

Excerpt from The New York Times, April 22, 1995

LODI, N.J., April 21— An old chemical plant in the heart of downtown Lodi exploded and burned this morning, killing four workers, injuring eight others, forcing the evacuation of nearby homes and sending a dense plume of toxic black smoke over much of western Bergen County.

The blast at Napp Technologies, which had a history of environmental violations and workplace accidents, was described as an industrial accident, apparently tied to a malfunctioning mixing vat for chemicals. Residents were urged today to keep their windows closed, and their children and pets off the street in case smoke from the plant was dangerous.

Over the last 25 years, many said, there have been several explosions, some minor and some major, that have rocked the block-long row of factories that have housed several chemical companies. One accident in 1973 at the Mallinckrodt Chemical Company killed seven workers.

"How do they let these chemical companies stay right in the middle of town?" asked Linda Tedesco, who lives near Napp Technologies.

PATERSON - 20TH CENTURY

On Oct. 21, 1963, an explosion leveled Franklin Finishing, a textile dye house at 178 Keen St.

On March 12, 1938, five Paterson firemen died at a general alarm fire at the Quackenbush Co. department store warehouse - greatest tragedy in the fire department's history.

On Sept. 3, 1953, fire crews contended with a three-alarm blaze at 80 Pennington Street

Assorted 20th Century incidents in Paterson, both major and minor:

• On March 29, 1901, fire destroyed the offices of the Daily Guardian newspaper at Broadway and Washington Street. ``The Guardian did not miss publication,'' as the rival Morning Call lent its presses, according to The New York Times. Both papers are now defunct. Acting Assistant Fire Chief Sweeney and Fireman Peter Shane were injured at the blazes. Sweeney sprained his ankle in a fall and Shane was overcome by smoke and tumbled from a ladder, The Times said.
• On June 21, 1901, fireworks exploded in a shop and tenement at 440 Main St., killing 17 people.
• On Feb. 9, 1902, The Great Fire of Paterson swept the city's business district. The flames, which broke out at a trolley barn, were fed by the wind.
• On April 1903, fire destroyed tenements at 919, 921, 923, and 925 Main Street, The New York Times said.
• On July 11, 1909, ``All the fire engines of the city but one were at work fighting a fire on River Street, in the heart of the business district, this afternoon, when a false alarm drew the remaining engine across the river,'' The New York Times said. ``Immediately came an alarm for a fire in the southern section of the city.''
• On March 18, 1911, fire destroyed the Folly Theatre ``soon after the matinee audience had dispersed,'' The New York Times said. ``Pat White and His Gaiety Burlesquers were playing a three-day engagement at the house, and all their costumes and other properties were burned.''
• On Dec. 15, 1912, ``a fire started in some of the flimsy Christmas stuff which filled the J.S. Diskon Department Store, at the northwest corner of Main and Van Houten Streets,'' according to The New York Times said.
• On Jan. 16, 1914, fire destroyed the Paterson Opera House. 
• On Dec. 22. 1915, ``Eight persons, five of them women, were rescued from the fourth story in a $30,000 fire in a store and tenement house,'' The New York Times said. ``One woman, Mrs. Abram Smith, became hysterical and jumped to the third story roof of an adjoining building and suffered several minor bruises.''
• On June 6, 1927, ``Thirty patients, all men, of St. Joseph's Hospital were carried tonight by seven policemen and twelve citizens from the west wing of the building while firemen called by two alarms extinguished a fire in the wall of the basement below,'' The New York Times said.
• On June 23, 1930, eight workers suffered burns in a benzine explosion at the Paterson Fur Dressing Co. at 196 Madison St., according to The New York Times.
• On Sept. 9, 1930 - Fire destroyed the Lamond Robertson Carpet Mill on East Fifth Street.
• On Dec. 10, 1934, fire swept the St. Bonaventure Monastery on Ramsey Street. Firefighters used ladders to rescue three friars from the roof, The New York Times said. Box 413 was sounded at 1:37 p.m. and went to four alarms.
• On Nov. 10, 1936 - Paterson police arrested a 26-year-old unemployed waiter after ``five fires in the early morning and nineteen others, one of which caused the death of a man, had terrorized part of this city since last May,'' The New York Times said.
• On Dec. 23, 1937, heavy smoke poured from a basement fire and routed shoppers at the Silver Rod Drug Store, 133 Main St., The New York Times said.
• On Feb. 17, 1949, ``Seventeen persons were felled today by chlorine gas in the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association building,'' The New York Times said. ``Police said a pipe connection came loose while workmen were removing the chlorination system, used to purify water in the swimming pool.''
• On March 22, 1952, four children died in a fire at 27-29 Peach St. Fire Chief G. Hobart Strathearn said youngsters playing with matches apparently started the fire, The New York Times said.
• On Feb. 18, 1960, a private plane crashed on the front lawn of a house, killing two persons ``as gale winds and a blinding downpour of rain and snow'' lashed the region, The New York Times said.
• On March 11, 1962, a pregnant woman ``clung to a third-floor tenement window'' to escape a fire and ``plunged to the pavement seconds before a rescue ladder could reach her,'' The New York Times said. She survived the fall as did her fetus.
• May 18, 1963, ``Three prisoners in a cell block in the Paterson police headquarters died of smoke poisoning in a fire early today,'' The New York Times said. ``Thirteen other persons, including two firemen, were overcome and required hospital treatment.''
• On Oct. 21, 1963, explosions demolished Franklin Finishing Co., a textile dyeing factory, and damaged nearby homes. Box 656 for 178 Keen Street was transmitted at 12:33 p.m. and went to a general alarm.
• Aug. 14, 1964, rioting erupted, and police and firefighters contended with rioters hurling fire bombs and debris. Paterson Mayor Frank Graves warned that he would "meet force with force."
• On May 14-15, 1965, a general alarm fire burned out of control in a neighborhood of homes and factories. Box 268, at 256 Marshall Street, was sounded at 10:33 p.m.
• On Oct. 22, 1966, fire destroyed seven stores in downtown Paterson and damaged several others at 190-194 Market St. and 1-11 Clark St. Box 145 was transmitted at 2:45 a.m. and went to four alarms.
• On Oct. 27, 1966, construction worker Robert Penn, 44, rescued six people from a burning building, leaped from a third floor window - and caught his wife after she jumped, according to United Press International.
• In June and July 1968, rioting broke out.
• On Dec., 10, 1968, an arson fire killed six people at the Midtown Hotel on Park Avenue.
• In, October 1971, the city was the scene of another outbreak of rioting.
• On Aug. 2, 1977, a stainless-steel vat exploded at a dye house, killing three workers and injuring about a dozen more.
• On April 29, 1978, the Fulton Street Fire - a general alarm at Box 151 - devoured mills and adjacent buildings as well as three fire department vehicles - Engine 2, Engine 5 and Battalion 2. Hundreds of firefighters from across North Jersey provided mutual aid.
• On July 4, 1978, fire swept five downtown apartment buildings, injuring three residents and three firefighters and leaving 40 families homeless, The New York Times said.
• On Feb. 8, 1980, fire destroyed police headquarters.
• In February 1980, the city was plagued by the ``arson alley'' fatal fires.
• On Oct. 15, 1981 an arson fire killed eight people at an apartment building at 89 Park Ave.
• On Oct. 18, 1984, a general fire at the Alexander Hamilton Hotel and killed 15 people. The fire was set by a resident.
• On Oct. 8, 1985, a three-alarm fire broke out at the Kirker Chemical Co. in the city's Riverside district and forced the evacuation of 200 residents.
• On Jan. 17, 1991, a general alarm fire broke out at 161 Main Street - the building that once housed the Meyer Brothers department store - and spread to about a dozen other businesses. The conflagration claimed the life of a Paterson firefighter. The body of John A. Nicosia, 28, a member of Engine 4, was recovered two days later. (For a complete list of Paterson firefighters lost in the line of duty, see the article entitled "Last Alarm.")
• On Oct. 20, 1997, a tractor-trailer loaded with chemicals caught fire on I-80 in Paterson ``sending rocketlike bursts of flame and a cloud of gray smoke into the air and creating a 10-mile traffic jam,'' according to The New York Times.
• On Oct. 29, 2000, winds turned a house fire into a conflagration - destroying three dwellings, damaging six others and leaving 55 people homeless, The New York Times said. The general alarm fire started at about 2:05 p.m. in a two-and-a-half-story wood-frame row house at 559 Main Street, Battalion Chief Edward McLaughlin told The Times.

HINCHCLIFFE BREWERY - 1904

Photo: patersonfirehistory.com

On Jan. 15, 1904, Paterson firefighter Harry Kelley of Engine Co. 7 was fatally injured when a pinewood ladder snapped at a general alarm fire at the Hinchcliffe Brewery.

Captain James O'Neill, who was also on the ladder, suffered injuries.

Box 18 at Straight and Governor streets was transmitted just after 7 a.m. after flames broke out near an elevator of the the fifth floor of the building.

The initial alarm brought horse-drawn Engines 3, 6 and 1 and Truck 3, with the horses struggling to over ice-covered streets to reach the blaze.  

The general alarm was a sounded after a roof-top tower holding thousand of  barrels of grain collapsed.

Engine 7, which was usually held in reserve in the south of the city, was added to the call, bring all of the city's fire apparatus to the blaze.

Kelley and O'Neill were manning a ladder pipe aimed at the fourth floor when they met their fate, falling 60 to 70 feet.

For full details, visit patersonfirehistory.com

KENVIL - 1940

On Sept. 12, 1940, in the buildup to World War Two, an explosion ripped through the Hercules Company munitions plant in Kenvil, Morris County, killing 51 workers and injuring 200 others.

The cause remains a mystery. Sabotage was suspected.

Kenvil, N. J., Sept. 13 (United Press) -- The death toll in the Hercules Powder Company disaster rose steadily today as eight separate agencies sought evidence of sabotage in connection with the explosion and fire which one rescue official said may have taken nearly 100 lives.

By noon 35 bodies, five of them unidentified, had been extricated from the still-smoldering ruins of what had been, up to 1:30 P. M. yesterday, one of the most productive munitions plants in the country.

Sheriff Henry Sperling of Morris County emerged from the plant grounds after a visit of inspection, gestured at the scene of devastation and remarked: "There must be 60 more in there."

W. C. Hunt, operations director of the company, was more conservative, however. He said "probably four or five" more bodies still were buried in the wreckage. The damage was estimated at $1,000,000.

The Army and Navy Intelligence Services, the Hercules Company, state police, the Dies committee, local police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Jersey Legislature were conducting or preparing to start investigations.

More than 200 men were searching for bodies, aided by a steam shovel. In two nearby hospitals 83 persons, some near death, still were receiving treatment.

The whole smokeless powder section of the plant, where work was being speeded on a $2,000,000 Government defense order, was leveled to the ground. A dynamite-making unit escaped damage, however, and the morning shift of workers filed back to the grounds. Casualties had decimated the plant's force of 1,200 employes, but the survivors were all put to work, making dynamite, clearing debris and hunting for bodies.

The scene was swarming with investigators representing the Army and Navy Intelligence services, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Dies committee investigating un-American activities, the New Jersey Legislature and police. Some of the secret agents had come by taxicab from as far as Virginia.

A search of the ruins was delayed by smoldering fires, which had burned fitfully all night, accompanied by puffs of alcohol vapors. Over more than half a square mile hot stones and bricks and molten steel lay in heaps.

Awaiting an opportunity to get onto the grounds, investigators questioned surviving workers, some of whom said that several employees of the Hercules and the Picatinny Army arsenal at Dover, nearby, had been discharged recently as the aftermath of a joint Ku Klux Klan "German" American bund meeting at the bund's Camp Nordland, 10 miles from here.

The workers said that FBI men had watched the meeting and had noticed several cars bearing the small identification plates issued to munitions plant workers, entering the Bund camp. A check-up of those identification plates led to the dismissals, according to the workers.

List of the dead:

EDWARD E. ALLEN, 20, Budd Lake.
JOHN T. ANDICO, 27, Netcong.
HARRY BACK, 29, Patchogue, Long Island.
HAROLD BAKER, 28, Dover.
JOSEPH F. BARNISH, Dover.
JESSE BENNETT, 67, Dover.
W. G. BLACK, 32, Flanders.
JAMES BRADY.
STUART T. CARROLL, 26, Morristown.
ARTHUR L. CLARK.
ALBERT COCKING, 33, Kenvil.
RAYMOND L. CORBY, 50, Rockway.
WILEY DEJONG, 35, Mendham.
EVART DUNN, Kenvil.
EDWARD M EXTROM, Kenvil.
REUBEN FANCHER, 22, Succasunna.
NATALINE J. FERRAINOLA, 26, Port Morris.
RALPH A. GRANATO, 22, Port Morris.
ELIJAH A. GREER, 20, Andrews, North Carolina.
JOHN B. GRIFFITH, 20, Budd Lake.
RAYMOND GULICK, 32, Wharton.
WILLIAM LEMAR HALKYARD, 40, Catawissa, Pennsylvania.
PETER KNOTT, 27, Kenvil.
JAMES G. LIST, 34, Kenvil.
FREDERICK M. McCONNELL, 20, Kenvil.
CHARLES RAYMOND MOORE, 44, Landing.
CHARLES L. MOSSER, 45, Pequannock.
WAYNE L. NIELSEN, 26, Ferndale, Michigan.
ROBERT NOLAN, 64, Kenvil.
H. E. OPDYKE, 48, Netcong.
RUBEN PARKER, 51, Dover.
EDWARD H. PAYNE, 20, Randolph.
NICHOLAS D. PISANO, 23, Netcong.
WILLIAM C. QUACKENBUSH, 18, Kenvil.
HARRY JAMES REED, 22, Kenvil.
JOHN SAVKO, 20, Mt. Hope.
RICHARD SCOTT, 25, Dover.
WALTER SISCO, 31, Branchville.
JACK W. SMITH, 18, Shonghum.
LOUIS SMITH.
RUSSELL SOSSONG, 28, Ledgewood.
PAUL STALCUP, 33, Mr. Arlington.
WILLIAM HENRY STEPHENS, Succasunna.
ALVIN STOUT, West Belmar.
CHARLES SWAN, Kenvil.
CHARLES TICE, 47, Mine Hill.
G. E. TOBLER, 27, Bartley.
WARREN WALDRON, Mt. Arlington.
RAYMOND A. WOODS, 18, Kenvil.

WOLF MUSLIN, NEWARK - 1910

 

On Nov. 26, 1910, a deadly fire engulfed a factory at Orange and High streets in Newark, illustrating the hazards of lax building codes and inadequate safety standards.

Six girls burned to death and 19 others plunged to their deaths from the windows of the Wolf Muslin Undergarment Company on the fourth floor, the fire having started on the floor below.

The quarters of Engine Company 4 were located across the street, however, the firemen were pushed back by the speed and intensity of the flames as the aged factory's floors were saturated with oil.

"From every window all over the building a stream of women began to fall through the air," The New York Times reported. "A few let themselves down from the window sills and hung for a second or two before they let go.  Others sprang out hand in hand with companions."

Newark's disaster was a prelude to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City the following March that claimed the lives of 146 garment workers - and led to industrial reforms.

LEVY SILK MILL - 1910

Photo: patersonfirehistory.com
On July 2, 1910, Box 456 was transmitted for the Levy Silk Mill and Manhattan Ribbon at Bridge and River streets in Paterson. No serious injuries were reported. About 100 workers lost their jobs. 

HOBOKEN PIERS - 1900

Photos: gendisasters.com, maggieblanck.com, Rutgers University

The Hoboken piers fire of June 30, 1900 claimed at least 326 lives, destroyed three Trans-Atantic liners and 24 smaller craft and gutted warehouses and other shore-side structures.

The Saale, Bremen and Main of the North German Lloyd line were lost; the Kaiser Wilhelm de Gross was heavily damaged.

The fire started in bales of cotton on the wharf and spread to barrels of turpentine and oil, gaining in ferocity.

Flames overwhelmed the resources of the Hoboken Fire Department, which received  the initial alarm at about 4 p.m.

On the New York side of the river, Box 251 for West and Morton streets rang in at 4:09 p.m, according to an account on the website of FDNY Marine Company 1.

Fire boats assigned to the box saw "hell was pop­ping" across the river and steamed toward New Jersey.

"In less than fifteen minutes the flames covered an area of a quarter of a mile long, extending outward from the actual short line to the bulk-heads, from six hundred to one thousand feet away," according to an account published in newspapers across the country.

Many of the casualties were trapped on the ships.

Those below deck struggled "in vain to force their way through the small portholes, while the flames pressed relentlessly upon them,” The New York Times reported.

The Graphic newspaper reported: "Decks were strewn with the bodies of those who succumbed to the fierce heat, which speedily made iron an steel red hot."

The piers themselves "entirely disappeared, and in their place was a clearing of blackened tops of piles and a gnarled mass of iron beams, the framework of the tops of the sheds," the Brooklyn Eagle said.

The Hoboken Fire Department lost a hose wagon to the flames.

For full details, visit maggieblanck.com 

LITTLE FERRY - 1937

Photo and diagram: Wikipedia

On July 9, 1937, fire engulfed the 20th Century Fox film storage facility in Little Ferry, New Jersey, resulting in the loss of most of the silent films produced by Fox Film Corporation before 1932.

On person died and two others were injured.

Investigators determined the fire was caused by the spontaneous combustion of nitrate film stored in inadequately ventilated vaults.

Firefighters from Little Ferry, Hawthorne, Ridgefield Park, River Edge and South Hackensack  manned 14 hose steams, bringing the blaze under control in three hours, according to Wikipedia.

Four homes and a garage also sustained damage.

BUFFALO EXPRESS - 1899

On Nov. 29, 1899, Paterson firefighters wielding axes freed passengers from wreck of the Buffalo Express at the Van Winkle Street rail crossing.

A local train bound for Hoboken sped through a signal and crashed into the express as it waited near the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad station - killing six people and injuring 21 others, The New York Times reported.

The local train shattered the rear day coach of the express and sent it telescoping into the next car.

A fire ensued.

"Within a few moments, police reserves , firemen and crowds of people  came to the rescue of those in the terrible tangle of wood and iron" and ripped "the fearful pile to pieces," according to a dispatch in the Sacramento Daily Union.

The fire was also extinguished.

HOBOKEN STATION - 2016

Photos: Twitter, News 12 NJ, NBC

NJ Transit train No. 1614 jumped the platform at Hoboken station on Sept. 29, 2016.  A woman was killed by falling debris. More than 100 others were injured. Jersey City, Paterson and Hackensack provided mutual aid to the Hoboken Fire Department.

SKIP GANGEL 1958-2016

In memory of Walter "Skip" Gangel, who was born in Paterson, served with the Franklin Lakes Ambulance Corps and kindled the editor's interest in the fire and rescue service many years ago.

Born: May 31, 1958
Died: April 28, 2016

PATERSON POLICE HQ - 1963 & 1980

   

Photos from Collection of Bruno Wendt, Paterson Fire History - Top: Paterson Engine Co. 1's crew pumps foam. Deputy Chief William Comer, later Chief of Department, foreground. Center:  Truck Co. 2 with aerial up, Squad Co. 1. Bottom: Early stage of fire.

UPDATED NOVEMBER 2019

Paterson's old police headquarters was the scene of two major fires two decades apart.

On Feb. 8, 1980, a general alarm fire gutted the structure at 111 Washington St. 

Box 171 was transmitted at 4:25 p.m. and flames burned - almost unchecked - for five hours. 

Firefighters resorted to pumping foam into the basement to contend with exploding ammunition and popping tear gas canisters.

The 77-year-old stone structure - described by The New York Times as "ornate" - had been showing its age and was abandoned after the blaze.

Detective Nat Davis was waiting to go out on assignment. In an instant, "all I saw was smoke coming through the walls, the floor" Davis told the Paterson News. "I started yelling, `Fire. Fire.' You couldn't see anything. We had to hold the doors so people could get out."

Two inmates were evacuated from a lockup and police dispatchers moved swiftly into position at police headquarters in neighboring Prospect Park, the News said. 

Temporary quarters were established at the old Central High School building. The police department was already scheduled to move into the new Public Safety Complex on Broadway that spring.

Flames visited the old headquarters on May 18, 1963 when a fire in a padded cell killed three prisoners and injured 11 others, including two firefighters, the Morning Call reported.

"The padded cell that burned was supposed to be fire proof," the newspaper reported.

Police suspected a prisoner started the fire. Flames were confined to the cell, which had been constructed two years earlier. The Associated Press reported fumes from the foam rubber padding caused the deaths and injuries. 

In a macabre twist, in September 2016, a body was discovered locked in a cell in the long-vacant structure, with officials estimating the person had been dead about a decade. 

In 2019, the building re-opened, "meticulously restored to house office suites," the Paterson Times reported.

SYLVETTES - 1972

    

     

Photos: Collection of Bruno Wendt, Paterson Museum

UPDATED NOVEMBER 2019

Disaster struck on the 34th anniversary of the Quackenbush warehouse fire and collapse that killed five Paterson firefighters in 1938.

On March 11, 1972, Sylvettes Store, located at Main Street and Broadway, suffered a similar catastrophe.

Four firefighters were injured, including Michael Ross of Truck Company 2, who was trapped under bricks, cinder blocks and other debris.

"I tried to crawl, but my legs were pinned," Ross told the Paterson News. "I was stunned and thought I was a goner."

"I could hear voices saying 'Ross is trapped; we must get him out," he said. "Next thing I knew, I was in the hospital."

Adjacent businesses suffered varying degrees of damage in the general alarm fire that raged as shoppers filled streets on a Saturday afternoon.

Falling debris stuck a street light, sending it crashing into the fire department's snorkel and  rocking the men in the bucket, the News said.

Debris also crushed the side of a new pumper assigned to Engine Company 5, which lost men in the Quackenbush disaster.

Sylvettes, which sold ladies coats and dresses, was owned and operated by Al and Julius Gladstone. It was located next to the old Rivoli Theater, which opened in 1923 and was converted into shops.

Box 451, the same alarm signal transmitted for the Great Fire of 1902, rang in at 3 p.m.

The blaze was declared under control at 6:30 p.m.

FULTON STREET - 1978

Photos: patersonfirehistory.com,and Collection of Bruno Wendt

It was hell on earth. On April 29, 1978, the Fulton Street fire - a general alarm at Box 151 - devoured old mills, adjacent homes and buildings in Paterson.

Acting Fire Chief Daniel Carroll said: "I never saw a fire spread so quickly."

Three Paterson Fire Department vehicles - Engine 2, Engine 5 and Battalion 2 - were left in ruins.

The initial alarm was received at 5:31 p.m. for a four-story mill at 28 Fulton St., near the Passaic River.

Hundreds of firefighters from across North Jersey provided mutual aid.

Investigators said the fire was arson.

Initial reports suggested a grain explosion.

* * *

The New York Times - May 2, 1978

PATERSON, May 1 ‐ Officials here said today that the multimillion‐dollar fire that destroyed four industrial buildings and five residential structures in the Riverside section of the city late Saturday and early Sunday had been deliberately set.

“We have reason to believe that it was not the work of vandals,” said Mayor. Lawrence F. Kramer as he met with some of the owners of companies that had been destroyed or damaged by the blaze, which was still smoldering.

Crane operators were at the scene trying to knock down parts of walls of the four‐story mill structures that were still standing.

“It was definitely a set fire,” Acting Fire Chief Daniel Carroll said. “We have not come up with conclusive proof as yet, but in all my 36 years of experience as a firefighter I never saw a fire spread so quickly. There is no doubt in my mind that the fire was accelerated by something other than natural causes.”

He said that a four‐story mill building at 28 Fulton Street where the fire started had been virtually vacant but that “it was fully involved within five minutes. There was no reason for the fire to spread so quickly."

He said that investigators from the County Prosecutor's office and from the police would help the department's arson squad try to determine the exact cause of the blaze, which left seven families homeless and idled about 70 workers.

The Mayor had high praise for the Paterson Fire Department and for the 200 firemen from neighboring communities who had fought the blaze for more than 10 hours.

“It was touch and go there for a while,” the Mayor said. “We had potential bombs at both ends.”

CITIES SERVICE - 1938

Photo: Linden Fire Dept

Fire at Cities Service in Linden in 1938

HOBOKEN ARSON

Photos: Hoboken Historical Museum
121 Clinton St., Hoboken

More than 40 people died in suspicious tenement fires in Hoboken between between March 1978 and November 1981, the deadliest taking 21 lives at 121 Clinton St. on Jan. 21, 1979.

The city was also the scene of a suspicious hotel fire that claimed 12 lives on April 30, 1982.

Hudson County prosecutor Harold Ruvoldt said fires were set for profit and revenge.

Most, if not all, were never solved.

In a letter published in the Dec. 13, 1981 edition of The New York Times, a Hoboken resident named Diane M. Camilleri, wrote:

Until several years ago, Hoboken was a stable, ethnically diverse working-class city. The original influx of more-affluent people from outside Hoboken led to the renovation of many small buildings in certain areas of the city, usually for the purchaser's own residence.

More recently, however, large real-estate interests and developers seem to have taken over gentrification; wholesale renovations and condominium conversions are occurring. Apparently not satisfied with the pace of evicting the poor, there has been a recent major increase in tenant harassment and arson.

Hoboken's arson rate over the last few years has been staggering for a small city. In the last month and a half alone, there have been 13 deaths in two arson fires. One building, in which 11 people, mostly Hispanic, died as a result of arson, is next to a group of buildings soon to be offered for sale as condominiums. This burnedout building was bought by the same developer who owns the adjacent condominiums.

The arson on Nov. 21 killed two people and displaced more than 60 others, who were then moved out of Hoboken. Among those 60 were some victims of the previous recent arsons who were being ''temporarily'' housed there. That building was bought in October by a real-estate developer.

The coincidence between these buildings being targeted for renovation or condominium conversion and the arsons is suspicious. Arson appears to be a convenient way to acquire a building with no tenants to force out by less-drastic, and therefore slower, methods.

Arson is only the most tragic and dramatic method of displacement. Tenant harassment has been occurring for some time: Phony eviction notices, applications for enormous hardship and capital-improvement rent increases, illegal raising of rents, delaying needed repairs, etc.

ERIE WAREHOUSE - 1941

     

Photos: City of Jersey City and weegee.org

Erie Railroad warehouse fire along Pavonia Avenue in Horseshoe section of Jersey City in 1941.  (Time exposure of three men visible in Photo No. 3.)