By Cristian Salazar
Herald News (New Jersey)
PATERSON, N.J. — A captain with Engine 5 of the Paterson Fire Department was injured and 12 people were displaced in a blaze early Friday that severely damaged a house on Auburn Street, fire officials said.
A 911 call of a fire at 45 Auburn St. at about 12:04 a.m. Friday brought firefighters from all over the city to the street, where flames had weaved through the structure and then spread to neighboring houses on both sides, according to Deputy Chief Scott MacGilvrayof the Paterson Fire Department.
By 2 a.m., firefighters had the blaze under control, he said.
Capt. William Mee, who works out of the Riverside station, suffered first- and second-degree burns to the back of the neck and was taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, MacGilvray said.
Four families ? including four children and eight adults, one six months’ pregnant ? were affected by the fire, which caused the collapse of part of the building at 45 Auburn St. and damaged houses on either side, he said.
Two families were relocated to hotels in Clifton and East Orange by the American Red Cross of Metropolitan New Jersey, according to Grace Zotter, a spokeswoman for the emergency services agency.
A dead dog was discovered in the house at 45 Auburn St., MacGilvray said.
The cause of the fire was unknown.