(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Jan. 5, 2011)
PERTH AMBOY — The circumstances behind a suspicious Dec. 19 four-alarm fire
which destroyed 32-unit Building 15 of the massive Harbortown complex in
the northeastern part of the city, leaving 100 residents homeless, are being
examined by city detectives and Middlesex County Arson Unit investigators to
determine whether sufficient safety-measures were in-place to protect lives
and property.
Witnesses said they believed that Building 15’s sprinkler-system was
inoperable, and because of the way the attics are constructed, the blaze was
channeled unimpeded throughout most of the structure.
“There should be a complete investigation of how these units were allowed
to be constructed the way they were,” City Council President Kenneth Balut, a
retired former Perth Amboy police officer, declared.
The fire was not completely-extinguished until the afternoon of Dec. 21,
after experiencing some flareups from smoldering embers throughout Dec. 20
which were attended-to by local firefighters.
Mayor Wilda Diaz lauded the city’s firefighters and others called-in to
help for keeping the blaze from spreading to other buildings in the complex.
She praised the city’s Human Services Department for working closely with
community organizations to help those affected by the Sunday evening fire,
which caused no fatalities and no serious injuries. Ten civilians had minor
injuries and were treated and released by Raritan Bay Medical Center’s Perth
Amboy Division, New Brunswick Avenue.
The American Red Cross supplied the families with vouchers and other
necessities beginning the day of the incident.
“Perth Amboy’s community is really coming-together to provide for our
families,” Diaz said. “We had an overwhelming response from local
organizations, demonstrating Perth Amboy’s spirit of giving, as well as tremendous
generosity from those in surrounding communities who have responded.”
Human Services also opened the Jankowski Community Center, Olive Street, as
a temporary shelter for the families.
On the day before Christmas Eve, Diaz and the City of Perth Amboy hosted a
four-hour-long presentation of donated clothing, toys and food for
distribution from local and surrounding businesses at the Jewish Renaissance Medical
Center, Hobart Street. With prepared foods donated by several area
restaurants, including BBQ Luso, Seabra’s Armory and Mario’s Pizza, plus a visit
from Santa, the event helped to make the holiday season a little brighter.
Support and contributions arrived from the Perth Amboy Board of Education,
Investors Savings Bank, Provident Bank, the New York Jets, the New York
Mets, McGuire Air Force Base, the Jewish Community Center of Edison, the Rotary
Club of Woodbridge/Perth Amboy, Perth Amboy Fire Department and the
Salvation Army. Also, a contingent of U.S. Marines arrived with three cartons of
new, wrapped toys for the children in an extension of its “Toys for Tots”
program, which had officially ended on Dec. 18.
Automobile dealer Ray Catena donated $2,000 gift-cards, and Tropical Cheese
President/CEO Ralph Mendez donated $500 gift-cards, to each of the 31
affected families.
Various local aid organizations also hosted holiday dinners for the
displaced residents throughout the following week. Perth Amboy public school
teachers served a buffet dinner to those who were temporaily housed at the Hampton
Inn, Route 9, Hopelawn.
The Code Enforcement Department issued a “Notice of Imminent Hazard” and
an order to begin to demolish the building to the Harbortown property owners
and their construction management after a structural engineer’s report
determined that residents of nine of the units could recover their belongings
from the burned-out building.
Most tenants in the 31 occupied units have since moved-in with friends or
family, although Harbortown management offered to house displaced residents
in nine vacant rental units in other buildings in the complex.
Fire Chief David Volk had reported that the fire was believed to have
started around 6:30 p.m. in an outside courtyard within the H-shaped building,
but those familiar with the blaze believe that it started as a resident was
working on his SUV inside a carport under the building.
Sources said the fire originally was called-in as a brush-fire, and then a
car-fire, so one of the Fire Department’s ladder-trucks responded. Upon
arrival, city firefighters found the structure fully-involved with a heavy
volume of flame, and Mutual Aid was called-in. Eventually, almost 80 firefighters
responded from Perth Amboy and all sections of Woodbridge Township,
Carteret, East Brunswick, Monroe, North Brunswick, Plainsboro, Sayreville, South
Amboy and South Plainfield.
At the time of this fire, Perth Amboy — which usually operates with three
engines and two ladders, plus a rescue-vehicle — was without its own engine,
but had borrowed Engine 1-10 from the Woodbridge Fire Department —
previously loaned-out to the Avenel and Keasbey Fire Departments — after two of the
city’s three engines were in bad shape and in-need of repair, and its
last-remaining engine was sideswiped by another vehicle two days before the
Harbortown fire.
Since then, one of the two used firetrucks purchased from the Borough of
Bound Brook for $45,000 has been put-into-service.
Witnesses said that water-pressure was a problem, and that firefighters
could be heard yelling-out, “Where’s the water?”
At the Council’s special closeout meeting for 2010, Harbortown homeowner
Roger Williams pointed out that he and his neighbors had “raised concerns
about the sprinkler-system” before, but their concerns were largely-ignored by
the previous Council.
The fire “should never have happened,” he said, attributing the quick
spread of flames to “poor construction and materials” which he said were
brought to the attention of Code Enforcement Director Edward Scala, who did not
attend the Dec. 27 meeting.
“We were told by Ed Scala that we were confusing the quality-of-work with
the code,” Williams said.
“The builder and the city did these people a disservice,” he declared.
“The buildings have no firewalls, and we’re not sure about sprinkler-systems.”
Regarding firewalls, Councilman William Petrick, a former Volunteer Fire
Chief, pointed out that “state building code provide a minimum standard,
requiring “fire-partitions.”
“Harbortown just went-through a major change of its sprinkler-systems,”
Councilman Fernando Gonzalez noted. “Your water-lines were diverted so that
you get charged differently. What’s been done to determine that what’s left
will do the job?”
“The Fire Subcode has to be met when the buildings are constructed,”
Petrick said. “After that, it falls-under the jurisdiction of the Fire Inspector.
How-many sprinklers are there?”
“Twenty-two,” Williams replied.
“There are a variety of ways you can do a sprinkler-system in residential
units,” Petrick noted.
“When the (builder’s) plumber did the work (to separate the
sprinkler-system from the water-lines), it should have been reinspected,” Balut stated.
“It’s a little difficult to inspect once the walls are up.” Petrick said.
“The testing-procedure should have been done before the walls were closed,
and the Fire Inspector should have been there observing the tests.”
“This was a tragic situation that could have been much-worse in the middle
of the night,” Gonzalez said. “I’m sure there will be further discussion of
this.”
Petrick pointed out that “there’s a limited number of sprinkler-heads to
go-off before they could have overwhelmed the system.”
Harbortown homeowner Danielle Berlingieri claimed that when her neighbor
smokes cigarettes inside his unit, “smoke comes-through the wall into our
house” so-thickly that it is visible.
She said that Scala “came-out and agreed that the wall wasn’t
properly-sealed,” but it has been “a cat-and-mouse type of game” to get that problem
addressed.
“I can’t tolerate the smoke,” Berlingieri said. “I can’t live downstairs
in my own home.”
Scala “should issue a violation (notice) to the builder so he has to repair
it,” Petrick said. “If the smoke is penetrating your wall, then you don’t
have a barrier there.”
No comments:
Post a Comment