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SMOKY BLAZE GUTS 3 BUILDINGS; North Bergen Fire Being Investigated

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 26, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B03

A fire that raged through a perfume warehouse on Paterson Plank Road on Tuesday destroyed two adjacent residential buildings and forced the evacuation of about 15 buildings on the block.

No one was injured, and authorities were investigating the cause of the fire, which was reported about 3:20 p.m., North Bergen Detective William Solan said. Apartment buildings on the 1100 block of Paterson Plank Road and buildings on 11th Street, downwind from the fire, were evacuated immediately, North Bergen police Sgt. Boze Bozicevic said.

Tears streaked down Virgin Minna’s cheeks as firefighters pumped water through her bedroom window, trying to put out the stubborn fire. Minna, 33, lived in an upstairs apartment at 1108 Paterson Plank Road with her husband and two children. The fire spread to her home from La Cibeles Inc., a warehouse at 1110 Paterson Plank Road.

Kathy Vargas, 29, of 1102 Paterson Plank Road, said she went into her neighbors house when her daughter told her she smelled smoke.

“I walked out and the street was filled with smoke,” Vargas said. “The flames were shooting above the roof of the building next to us.”

She went next door and got Luz Guzman and her three young daughters and Minna’s 13-year-old son, Hilton, out of the house. Hilton said he smelled the smoke and was checking around the apartment when Vargas came knocking and told him of the fire next door.

Four employees were working in the warehouse at the time the fire started, but they were not injured, he said.

North Bergen firefighters were assisted by the Union City, Jersey City, and Weehawken fire departments.

People who were evacuated from dwellings because of dense smoke near the warehouse were sent to the nearby John F. Kennedy School. By Tuesday evening, they still had not been allowed to return home, and Red Cross representatives were working to arrange temporary shelter.

Caption: Firefighters dousing buildings ignited by a fire in a perfume warehouse on Paterson Plank Road in North Bergen on Tuesday. PHOTO – ED HILL/THE RECORD

February 26, 1992

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LODI DEATH CALLED MURDER; Woman, 68, Was Found in Closet

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen and Janet DeStefano, Record Staff Writers | Saturday, February 22, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | A03

Authorities confirmed on Friday that Ann Li Gregni, the 68-year-old Lodi woman found dead Thursday in a closet in her home, was murdered, but they did not provide details on their investigation.

Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy would not comment on what kind of wound, if any, was on the woman’s body. The cause and time of the woman’s death had not been determined late Friday afternoon, he said, declining to comment on reports that she had been strangled or suffocated.

Workers at Gibraltar Plastics in Lodi, where Li Gregni worked as a billing clerk for 15 years, called authorities when she did not show up for work Thursday morning. Police and family members discovered her body about 11 a.m. in the brick home on Avenue C she shared with a 16-year-old granddaughter.

Police were searching for an unidentified person believed to have driven away from the house Thursday morning in the victim’s car.

Lt. Richard Desimone said police questioned “a couple of family members,” but declined to say who. The granddaughter’s whereabouts remained unclear.

Li Gregni’s neighbors on Avenue C, a quiet block where the homes are well tended, said they were shaken by the murder. “She was a hard-working woman . . . and we’re in shock over this,” said Angelo Cangelosi, who lives next door.

Neighbors say Li Gregni’s life revolved around her granddaughter, Dawn, who lived with her.

She saved her salary so that she could send Dawn to Immaculate Conception High School in Lodi and eventually to college. They said she planned to retire in May so that she could spend more time with Dawn.

“She was extremely protective of her granddaughter,” said Elizabeth Sanders, Li Gregni’s boss at Gibraltar Plastics.

February 22, 1992

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FIREFIGHTER ACCUSED OF SEX ASSAULT

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, February 21, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | D03

A former borough fire chief has been charged with sexual assault on a 5-year-old boy, officials said Thursday.

Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said Joseph D. Schneider of 370 Feronia Way was charged Feb. 13. Schneider, 46, was released after he paid 10 percent of his $2,500 bail.

Mayor Andrew E. Bertone said Schneider was chief of the volunteer Fire Department a few years ago, and that he’s still active in the department. He declined to discuss the arrest.

The complaint, signed by police Sgt. Thomas Farrell, said Schneider touched “intimate parts” of the child. Fahy said the incident occurred between Jan. 25 and Feb. 9, when Schneider took the boy to his basement to show him a military book.

A relative of the boy’s reported the alleged incident to police, and Schneider was arrested about 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 13, Fahy said.

Schneider referred all questions to Brian J. Neary, his attorney. Neary said Schneider pleaded not guilty to the charge Monday.

“We are looking into the situation and hope to act appropriately when all the facts come to light,” Neary said. “He’s a decent man who’s never been in trouble before. And he’s been a community leader. We’ll wait to see the complete scope of the allegation, and we hope to act appropriately.”

Schneider has been a volunteer firefighter for about 12 years, Neary said.

February 21, 1992

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FIRE VICTIM IS MOVED TO NEW YORK BURN CENTER

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, February 16, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A03

An 11-year-old boy injured in a Palisades Park apartment building fire was moved Saturday to a Westchester County Medical Center burn unit to place him near a machine that would help him breathe if he should need it.

Although the boy, Angelo Gagliardi, is able to breathe through a ventilator, his windpipe was damaged so severely that he may need the extracorporeal membrane oxygenator, which few hospitals have, said Dr. Anthony C. Barbara, chief of the Hackensack Medical Center burn unit and head of pediatric surgery.

Angelo suffered second- and third-degree burns to his arms, legs, and face, and smoke inhalation. Heat from the fire about 1:50 a.m. Friday ruptured the passageway to his lungs.

The special respirator serves as an external lung for people with significant breathing problems, Barbara said.

Barbara said such equipment isn’t readily available, and New Jersey does not have a place where a victim Angelo’s age can receive treatment. Calls to centers in other states were fruitless, he said.

But, with help from the National Burn Victim Foundation, a non-profit agency that arranged Angelo’s transportation, Hackensack Medical Center officials searched a University of Michigan national registry of centers utilizing the machines and came up with the Westchester medical center in Valhalla.

The machine can get him over a rough period with his breathing until the lining of the tracheobronchial tree regenerates, Barbara said. “We felt it was best to transfer him now, while he’s stable, rather than wait for a catastrophe. ”

Also critically injured were Angelo’s mother, Ada Cruz, and stepbrother, Luis Maldonado. A spokeswoman at Teaneck’s Holy Name Hospital, where they were being treated, said Moldonado, 21, and Cruz, 43, had improved Saturday, and that their conditions were stable.

Cruz’s daughters, Monica Nieves, 6, and Christiana Gagliardi, 12, and her mother, Maria Owens, 62, were treated at Englewood Hospital on Friday and released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Jose Castro, superintendent of the adjoining 21-unit buildings at 28 and 32 E. Palisades Blvd., said Cruz had just moved into a basement apartment with her four children at the beginning of the month ironically because she was concerned about fire hazards at the apartment she was moving from.

The fire was ruled an accident, but authorities were investigating why the hallway fire alarm was switched off. Tenants often go to the circuit breaker and switch it off, Castro said.

Palisades Park police Capt. John Genovese, coordinator of the borough’s emergency management team, fractured a knuckle getting into the apartment during the rescue. Fire Chief Donald Spohn said borough fire and medical emergency teams were assisted by Leonia, Ridgefield, Fort Lee, Cliffside Park, and Teaneck emergency, fire, and ambulance personnel.

February 16, 1992

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PALISADES PARK BLAZE INJURES 8, ROUTS 42 FAMILIES; Police Carry Out Those Hurt Seriously

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, February 15, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | A03

A fire at an apartment building Friday morning injured eight people three of them critically and routed 42 families, authorities said.

Two of those critically injured were stepbrothers who were carried out unconscious by police from a smoke-filled basement apartment where the fire started.

Although the fire was ruled an accident, it was unclear what started it, and an investigation continues into why fire alarms and smoke detectors apparently failed to work, Police Chief Alan J. Lustmann said.

Patrolman Scott Maresca, who was the first to arrive at the building at 32 E. Palisades Blvd. about 1:50 a.m., found three of the injured people outside. Maresca, Capt. John Genovese, Lt. Anthony Servis, and Patrolman John Sopelsa entered the basement apartment when they were told more people were inside.

Genovese carried out Luis Moldonato, 21, while his 11-year-old stepbrother, Angelo Gagliardi, was rescued by Maresca, said police, who credited the officers with saving the two stepbrothers lives.

Except for the tenants of four units rendered uninhabitable by the fire, residents of the building were allowed to return four hours later, Lustmann said. Firefighters estimated that 150 people lived in the adjoining 21-unit buildings at 28 and 32 E. Palisades Blvd.

Fire Chief Donald Spohn said the fire was put out within 30 minutes.

Moldonato suffered burns and smoke inhalation and was in Holy Name Hospital, a spokeswoman said. His mother, Ada Cruz, 43, who shares the apartment with three other children, was also in listed in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

Gagliardi was in critical condition at Hackensack Medical Center with second- and third-degree burns, a hospital spokeswoman said. Daughters Monica Nieves, 6, and Christiana Gagliardi, 12, and Cruz’s mother, Maria Owen, 62, were treated at Englewood Hospital and released, a spokeswoman said. Berta Lopez, also a tenant in the building, was treated at Englewood Hospital and released.

February 15, 1992

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FRIEND CATCHES BOY IN FIRE LEAP

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, February 14, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B08

A 13-year-old boy escaped injury in a fire Thursday when he climbed off a second-floor balcony at his family’s apartment onto a storage shed roof, then jumped into the arms of a next-door neighbor.

Ricky Correale of 147 Washington Ave. admitted he was scared, but was laughing later when he said Sam Aguilar, 15, “saved my life.”

John Godfroy, 72, and his wife Alma, 71, tenants in the first-floor apartment where the fire started, were taken to Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck for observation, Fire Chief William A. Weber said.

Following an alarm at 7:53 a.m., firefighters saw heavy, black smoke coming out the front door and windows of the building, which also contains three storefronts and two other apartments.

“The fire started in the bedroom closet,” Weber said. “A [lighted] cigarette accidentally fell into the pocket of the woman’s robe. She then hung the robe up in the closet.”

The fire was under control within 15 minutes, Weber said. Heat and water damage was confined to the couple’s living room and bedroom, although smoke damage extended to the second-floor apartment and a store next door, Weber said.

Correale, whose mother had left for work, was coming out of the shower when he heard a frantic knock on the door and shouts that the building was on fire, he said.

He grabbed a jacket, sweat pants, a T-shirt, and sneakers. Unable to go down the stairs because of heavy smoke, Correale went out the back door onto the roof of the shed.

Aguilar was in the parking lot when he saw the smoke, then saw Correale on the roof, which is about 12 feet from the ground. Aguilar said he told his friend, who weighs about 130 pounds, to jump, and that he would catch him.

“He kept saying, `Are you sure you’re going to catch me? He asked me that like six times. I said jump, jump, jump,” Aguilar said.

Correale said he took another look at the flames shooting out of the first-floor windows. He jumped, and Aguilar caught him in a bear-hug.

Little Ferry firefighters were assisted by the Carlstadt, Hasbrouck Heights, and Moonachie fire departments.

February 14, 1992

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TWO CHARGED WITH GUN, DRUG COUNTS

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 12, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B03

Two men were charged with possession of a sawed-off shotgun and an automatic handgun and were being held in the Bergen County Jail, each on $25,000 bail, Police Chief John Orso said Tuesday.

Robert Cobb, 22, and Robert Scott, 19, were stopped in the parking lot of the municipal building about 9:30 p.m. Monday after detectives on patrol saw them drive back and forth several times, Orso said.

The men told the detectives they lived nearby and that the papers for the car were at their apartment, Orso said.

With the men’s permission, detectives entered the apartment at 2134 Mackay Ave., and found the shotgun and the .25-caliber automatic handgun on the bed, Orso said. They also found in a safe a record of drug transactions and $2,800, he added. Those items were confiscated.

Detectives later found out that Scott had two outstanding warrants, one for failure to appear in Bergen County Superior Court on a burglary charge and the other for failure to appear in Atlantic County Superior Court on a drug possession charge, Orso said.

Charges against the men include unlawful possession of weapons, unlawful possession of hollow nose bullets, and conspiracy to possess and distribute a controlled dangerous substance. Further details on the charges were not available.

Sgt. Bill Cullen, Detective Gary Moleta, and Detective John Klein, all of the borough’s Narcotics Squad, were involved in the arrest.

February 12, 1992

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INMATES BLAME FOOD FOR JAIL DISTURBANCE; Testify at Hearing on Class-Action Suit

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, February 8, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | A03

Two Bergen County Jail inmates testified Friday that dissatisfaction with the jail’s food led to a hunger strike and a disturbance last month in which one prisoner was bitten three times by a guard dog.

Gary Jones and Gregory Cannell testified at the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack at continuing hearings on a 1988 class-action lawsuit filed by the state Department of the Public Advocate to reduce overcrowding at the jail.

Jones and Cannell said that prisoners are dissatisfied with the quality of food and the size of the portions. Until the protest, they said, food often was served cold.

Jones said that, as a leader of a group of white inmates, he persuaded black and Puerto Rican inmates in his dormitory to go on a hunger strike Jan. 11. All 64 inmates from the dormitory skipped lunch that day, he said.

That evening, all but five inmates, who ate because they were hungry and were allowed to leave ahead of the others, dumped their food into the garbage and tried to rush out of the dining hall past corrections officers to return to their dormitory, Jones said.

Officers used dogs to quell the disturbance, Jones said. Cannell said that corrections officers cornered a group of inmates, handcuffed and beat him, then allowed a dog to bite him on his left hand and once on each arm.

As a result of the disturbance, 15 inmates were charged with rule violations, and Cannell and Howard Tucker each face a charge of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

Cannell, whose testimony will continue next week, hired Westwood attorney Leopold A. Monaco to represent him on the charge. Cannell said inmates had many complaints, ranging from how corrections officers treat them to physical conditions. Monaco said his client has been held in isolation since the incident as punishment.

County officials have maintained that the correction officers actions were proper, saying the inmates provoked the response by rushing for the doors.

The hearings resumed this week before James A. Zazzali, a special master appointed by U.S. District Judge Harold A. Ackerman in September 1989, when the parties failed to reach an out-of-court settlement. They are expected to last at least through February.

February 8, 1992

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SEARCH BEGINS FOR FIRE’S CAUSE; 3 Garfield families homeless

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, February 6, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B03

Investigators continued their search Wednesday for the cause of a fire that severely damaged a Main Street house and displaced three families.

The fact that the probe is ongoing “doesn’t mean it was arson, or anything like that,” said police Capt. Babe Cimino.

A Garfield schoolteacher saw the fire at 7 Main St. at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and called police.

“It spread through the rear of the house rapidly, and eventually consumed the entire house, causing extensive damage to the house and its contents,” Cimino said.

The fire was declared under control about 5:50 p.m. by Fire Chief John Adametz.

A firefighter, two ambulance corps members, and an unidentified woman were treated for minor injuries at Saddle Brook Hospital and released.

The displaced families were able to find temporary shelter with relatives.

February 6, 1992

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PAIR ARRESTED TRYING TO FLEE

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Wednesday, February 5, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B03

Two men suspected of a string of robberies in New Jersey were being treated Tuesday at Bellevue Hospital Center for broken limbs after they injured themselves trying to escape from Fort Lee and New York police officers, police said.

Ramon Harper, 24, of Edison and Derrick Sheridan, 31, of Avenel were arrested Monday night in New York, police said.

Rochelle Park Detective Don Simon said the men grabbed a 33-year-old woman as she walked into the West Passaic Street Shop-Rite at about 9:50 p.m. One of them pulled her pocketbook from her shoulder, Simon said.

Fort Lee police spotted the men’s car approaching the George Washington Bridge and chased it into the city.

The suspects abandoned their vehicle and jumped off a roof 25 feet to the ground, where they were arrested, Royster said.

Police said Harper and Sheridan are suspects in recent strong-arm robberies in communities including Hackensack, Lodi, Wayne, West Orange, Denville, Parsippany, and Rahway.

February 5, 1992

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