SMOKY BLAZE GUTS 3 BUILDINGS; North Bergen Fire Being Investigated

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

FIRE VICTIM IS MOVED TO NEW YORK BURN CENTER

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.

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

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.

FRIEND CATCHES BOY IN FIRE LEAP

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.

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

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.

NEIGHBORS AID TENANTS DISPLACED BY FIRE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, December 14, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A04

Neighbors have begun raising money to help tenants of 6 Edison Place, who were displaced Wednesday by a fire that gutted the wood-frame, two-family house.

The fire was caused by an electrical malfunction, Detective Jerry Winston said Friday.

Robert Johnson, 65, jumped out a window of his second-floor apartment but was uninjured, Winston said. Joshua Favor, 16, was taken to Hackensack Medical Center with cuts on both hands and an injury to his right toe. Elviria Dewf also was taken to the hospital and was treated for smoke inhalation.

Favor’s mother, Luella, 39, Detective Sgt. Kenneth Felten, and police Officer Dennis Rivelli were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Firefighter Mario Rivezzi was treated for eye irritation.

Neither police nor fire officials could confirm how many people lived in the house.

Cheryl Chenier of 1 Edison Place said neighbors, in a door-to-door effort, collected about $300 for the families and have opened an account at the National Community Bank for boroughwide fund-raising.

The families are being lodged by the American Red Cross at Days Inn in East Rutherford.

GAS EXPLOSION ROUTS PLANT WORKERS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 9, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B02

A natural gas line outside a power station at the Garden State Paper Co. ruptured Tuesday, causing an explosion that sent fireballs into the air and routed about 115 employees from four surrounding plants, authorities said.
Fire Chief Sean Delahanty said the only confirmed injury was to John Czujko, his first assistant chief, who was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Although neither police nor fire officials could confirm any other injury, employees at the neighboring Zumtobel Lighting said a colleague was taken to the hospital with burns on his forehead.
The man leaped out of his car just after the pipe exploded, said Ben Perez of Paterson, a sheet-metal fabricator at the company, which is next to the power station.
“The explosion happened right in front of him,” Perez said. “He didn’t know what happened. He got out of his car and ran with everyone down Kipp Avenue.”
Three cars belonging to Garden State Paper employees and a backhoe owned by an independent contractor were destroyed by the ensuing fire, which was fed by natural gas shooting out of the pipe until it was shut it off.
Officials could not say how the leaking gas was ignited. They also could not say how many employees were inside the four-story power station at the time of the explosion, but said all got out safely.
Rich King, plant manager for King Finishing, a powder coating firm, said he ran back into his building and escaped from the back dock after seeing the explosion, which someone called in to the Police Department about 2:45 p.m.
“We no sooner walked outside and there was this fireball,” King said. “I ran through the plant and yelled, `Everybody get out.”
Margo Lane, communications manager for Garden State Paper, said she had no information on the cause of the explosion but said it effectively shut down the company’s operation because the station is the only power source for the plant, which processes recycled newsprint. The company’s main building, about two blocks from the power station and containing about 250 workers, was not evacuated.
About 85 firefighters from Garfield, Lodi, Wallington, Maywood, Rochelle Park, Saddle Brook, and Elmwood Park fought the blaze.

Keywords: GARFIELD; BUSINESS; EXPLOSION; FIRE

MOTHER, 3 CHILDREN DIE AS FIRE DESTROYS HOME

By Michael O. Allen and Laura Impellizzeri, Record Staff Writers | Wednesday, June 12, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Three Star P | NEWS | Page A18

After being driven back twice by heavy smoke and intense heat, a disoriented William McClain could do nothing but scream for help as a raging fire destroyed his home and family early Tuesday.
Four members of the family the mother, a daughter, and two sons died in the two second-floor bedrooms as a result of the 12:30 a.m. blaze at 86 Haring St. in Bergenfield.
The youngest child, Patrick, 7, was in “extremely critical condition” Tuesday evening at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.
Firefighters found Lelia McClain, 39, unconscious in bed upstairs in the master bedroom. Katie, 9, was found unconscious on the floor in that room. The mother died at 5:30 a.m. at Hackensack Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. Katie was admitted to Englewood Hospital in critical condition, and died before dawn.
The two oldest sons William “Billy” McClain, 16, and Brian, 13 were found, with Patrick, huddled in the northwest corner of their bedroom, said Lt. Robert Kops, chief of the prosecutor’s arson investigation unit. They were dead on arrival at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck.
Kops said the fire started in the kitchen, in the southwest corner of the house, spread into the dining and living rooms, and sent a thick wall of smoke and intense heat up the stairs. The heat and a black haze apparently prevented the father from crossing the tiny upstairs hallway to the children’s bedroom when he heard one of them yell “fire,” Fahy said.
The house was gutted. Tuesday afternoon, its powder-blue siding, though melted and bent around the charred kitchen window, was still mostly intact, hiding the devastation within.
Bergenfield Deputy Fire Chief Edward Kneisler said there was no smoke detector in the 75-year-old house, where the McClains had lived since 1977. The alarms are not required.
“When we got there it was fully involved,” he said. “A $20 smoke detector in this house and it might have saved someone’s life.”
Kneisler said about 30 Bergenfield firefighters, with standby support from Dumont, Closter, and Tenafly, extinguished the blaze in about 30 minutes.
Bergenfield Police Officer Pete Murphy said he was in the area about 12:35 a.m. Tuesday on an unrelated investigation when he heard someone screaming.
Murphy said that when he turned the corner at West Clinton Avenue onto Haring Street, black smoke blanketed the whole block. He found McClain, 39, sitting on the first-floor porch’s roof, which forms a sloped ledge outside his bedroom window, screaming that his family was trapped inside. Murphy said he could not talk him into jumping from the roof.
Murphy and Bergenfield Police Officer Owen M. Rynn, who is also a volunteer firefighter, tried to go into the house.
“We kicked in the front door,” Murphy said. “We got into the living room, about halfway through, but the smoke was too thick and the heat.”
“We came out and it went up,” said Rynn. He could see flames in the kitchen as he crawled several feet into the living room beneath the acrid, knee-level smoke.
Neighbors Peter Field, 23, and Matt Gelis, 21, rushed over with a ladder when they heard McClain shouting, and saw smoke billowing out of the house.
“The father was on the roof and my first reaction was to grab the ladder and help him down,” said Gelis, who has known the family since the younger children were babies.
“It’s horrifying,” Gelis said. “You’re just sitting there, and you can’t get in the house and you’re just waiting for firefighters.”
The police helped McClain from the roof. Field and Gelis brother Jason ran to the back of the house yelling the children’s names, but got no answer, the youths said. The police officers then climbed the ladder and tried to go into the master bedroom, but were again beaten back by the heat. Seconds later, firefighters arrived.
Murphy said McClain was suffering from shock and smoke inhalation and appeared to be “completely devastated.”
“I don’t know how this guy is going to make it,” Murphy said.
Fahy said the cause of the fire was not determined, but it did not appear suspicious. Neighbors said a planned two-room, one-story addition on the back of the house was nearing completion; Fahy said the work was not a factor in the fire.
Volunteer Bergenfield firefighter Jack DeLucia, who drove the ladder truck that put out the blaze, returned to the scene about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, still shaken by the experience.
“If somebody could have seen the fire 10 minutes earlier,” DeLucia said. “It’s been said many times before, but smoke alarms, smoke alarms.”
Bergenfield Mayor Robert Gallione said the borough follows the state building code, which does not require that single-family dwellings have smoke detectors. The building department, however, began looking at ways to strengthen the codes earlier this year, he said.
“We will be getting a report regarding changes to be made,” Gallione said. “Any opportunity that we get to save just one life, we will take the appropriate action. We have relied on public education and voluntary compliance, with smoke suppression and smoke detection devices.
Record Staff Writers Tom Toolen and Linda Voorhis contributed to this article.

Keywords: FIRE; DEATH; VICTIM; BERGENFIELD; FAMILY

Caption: PHOTO – JOHN DECKER / THE RECORD – A shocked neighbor looking at house where four family members died.

Notes: 2 of 2 versions

MAN AND FIREFIGHTER INJURED IN BLAZE

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Wednesday, May 15, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

An 82-year-old man and a borough firefighter remained hospitalized Tuesday after a fire that heavily damaged a single-family home.
Although police said Justin D. Mahon of 4 Rutgers Terrace suffered a heart attack, a spokeswoman at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood could not confirm the report. Mahon was listed in stable condition.
Fair Lawn firefighter Joseph Jasinski, who was overcome by smoke during the Monday evening blaze, was in stable condition at the hospital, Fair Lawn Fire Chief John Mamo said. Two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion at the hospital and released. Three others were treat at the scene for heat exhaustion.
Mahon was unconscious in the kitchen when firefighters reached him, Mamo said. Mahon’s wife and daughter were not home when the fire broke out.
“He was apparently trying to make his way out of the house and was overcome by the heat,” Mamo said.
Mahon had no pulse when they found him, but was revived by two firefighters, said Mamo. About 50 firefighters fought the blaze, which appeared to be accidental, and had it under control in about 15 minutes, he said. It started in the family room and spread quickly through the house, causing heat and smoke damage.

Keywords: FAIR LAWN; HOUSING; FIRE

BERGENFIELD FIRE ROUTS TENANTS

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, March 3, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A05

Borough fire officials are investigating a predawn fire Saturday that started in a basement apartment and shot flames into the top floors of a home housing three tenants.
The tenant of the basement apartment at 7 Foster St. was not at home when the fire started about 4:15 a.m., said Bergenfield Deputy Fire Chief Edward Kneisler. Smoke alarms awakened the two other tenants in the building and they were not injured.
Police confiscated two cases of ammunition that firefighters discovered in a fenced-off lot adjacent to the burning house, Kneisler said. The ammunition was not near the flames, he said. No details were immediately available.
Bergenfield firefighters received assistance from Closter firefighters, while the Dumont department was on standby and Teaneck provided support services.

Keywords: BERGENFIELD; FIRE

Caption: PHOTO – WARREN GOLDBERG / SPECIAL TO THE RECORD – Firefighters extending lengths of hose used to battle a predawn fire in a house on Foster Street in Bergenfield on Saturday. Two residents escaped the home without injury after a smoke alarm sounded.