By Erik Shilling
The Record
PASSAIC, N.J. — A stubborn five-alarm fire that gutted a three-story brick apartment building on Washington Place kept firefighters busy for more than four hours on Friday and sent a 53-year-old resident to a hospital with critical injuries, authorities said.
The fire was reported just before 4 p.m. in a ground-floor apartment at 88 Washington Place, which sits near an elevated section of Route 21 between Hope and Columbia avenues. Flames and columns of thick, black smoke could be seen billowing from the structure for several hours as firefighters worked to contain the blaze.
An occupant of a ground-floor apartment, identified only as a 53-year-old woman, was taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson with critical injuries, said Passaic Fire Chief Patrick Trentacost Sr.
The woman’s apartment was “fully involved in flames” when firefighters arrived at the scene, Trentacost said.
Two firefighters were injured. One may have broken one or more ribs, Trentacost said. Another dislocated his shoulder. The firefighters, whose names were not released, also were taken to St. Joseph’s, the chief said.
Firefighters used a ladder truck to rescue a woman from a third-floor window soon after arriving at the scene, Trentacost said. Another woman was rescued from a second-floor apartment. Both were treated for minor injuries, Trentacost said.
No other injuries were reported, and all residents were accounted for, the chief said. In all, 18 families were displaced by the fire, Mayor Alex D. Blanco said. Some were given hotel vouchers while others sought temporary shelter at the Passaic Senior Center, Blanco said.
About a dozen fire departments from towns as close as Paterson and as far away as Teaneck responded to the scene.
For a time just before 5 p.m., it appeared that firefighters were getting the better of the blaze. But it quickly flared up, spreading from the rear to the front and gutting the interior. A section of the roof at the rear of the building caved in, and fire officials said they were concerned that the building was in danger of collapsing.
“Eventually, I made the decision to back everybody off,” Trentacost said. “The fire got well ahead of us. We put all our resources into it.”
Authorities closed a stretch of Route 21 north so firefighters could battle the fire from the highway’s elevated deck. Firefighters were still battling the blaze at 9 p.m., and Trentacost said he expected them to remain at the scene for several hours.
Friday’s blaze was not considered suspicious, but investigators did not immediately pinpoint a cause. One fire official said investigators were pursuing the possibility that a cigarette accident was to blame.
Residents and neighbors who escaped unhurt said they were stunned by what they were witnessing.
Javier Echevarria, 40, who lives across the street, had just left 88 Washington Place around 4 p.m. after visiting a friend in a third-floor apartment when he saw smoke coming from the building’s ground floor. He returned to the building, where he said he heard a woman crying for help from a first-floor apartment. He was banging on the apartment door when firefighters arrived, he said.
The woman was taken from the scene by ambulance, Echevarria said.
“Her T-shirt was still smoking,” he said. “She had soot on her body.”
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