3rd Alarm, Edison, NJ 04/29/09

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1:09 PM 04/29/2009 – U/D NJ| MIDDLESEX| EDISON| *3RD ALARM*| 52 READING RD (APT A-H)| (2) LADDER & (1) DECK GUN IN OPER. COLLAPSE OF SOME OF THE APTS REPORTED. FIRE IS RAPIDLY RUNNING ACROSS THE ROOF. FIRE HAS AFFECTED THE APTS LISTED ABOVE. UNITS TRYING TO HOLD THE FIRE FROM APTS J THRU R. NJC750/NJN917/NJN388| (C) BNN | NJC012/NJC233/NJC045/NJN158

1:30 PM 04/29/2009 – U/D NJ| MIDDLESEX| EDISON| *3RD ALARM*| 52 READING RD (APT A-H)| CMD REQUESTING ALL HOSE LINES BE TEMPORARILY SHUT DOWN TO ASSESS PROGRESS SO FAR. INTERIOR CREWS ARE REPORTING BULK OF FIRE IS KNOCKED DOWN HITTING SEVERAL HOT SPOTS. CMD REPORTS FIRE HAS BEEN CONTAINED TO THE ORIGINAL FIRE BUILDING NJC750/NJN917/NJN388/NJC755| (C) BNN | NJC757/NJC012/NJC233/NJC045

The Home News Tribune

April 29, 2009

Edison apartment building fire displaces more than 30

By JOSHUA BURD

Staff Report

More than 30 people were displaced Wednesday by a smoky three-alarm fire that gutted parts of a Durham Woods apartment building, fire and relief officials said.

No injuries were reported in the early afternoon blaze, which destroyed eight units and left eight others at 52 Reading Road at least temporarily uninhabitable.

The fire's cause and exact origin have not yet been determined, fire officials said.

Smoke could be seen for miles as firefighters, police and EMS responded to a 12:44 p.m. 911 call to find the building fully engulfed in fire. Neighbors said tall flames shot from the roof and windows while the smoke surrounded the two-story building.

"People were screaming and covering their mouths (as) they were running from there,'' said Keerthi Pothuri, 19, who lives across the street.

At one point, neighbor Kavita Awasthi said, a woman jumped from a second-floor balcony down to several people who were waiting to catch her.

Fire Chief Norman Jensen said part of the building collapsed soon after firefighters showed up, indicating that the fire had been burning long before a 911 call was made.

Several tenants who live across the street said they could feel the heat inside their apartments, and before long there was charred debris blowing over to their building.

"We saw it from the highway,'' Donell Colon, 21, of Perth Amboy said of the smoke. She said she was only at the scene "because I have friends that live over here and I just wanted to make sure it wasn't their building.''

Joe Rosenberg, who lives across the street, said he first saw bright red flames near one of the building's two breezeways. After completely engulfing four units on the end, the fire started spreading toward the other units until it was doused by firefighters.

"You couldn't even see the building through the smoke at first,'' said Rosenberg, 58. "And after about two minutes the flames started.''

Jensen, the fire chief, said the apartments had smoke detectors, but that they made no difference in this case.

"Those detectors can go off like crazy,'' Jensen said. "If there's no one home to hear them it's like a tree falling in the woods.''

The displaced tenants included nine children, said Diane Concannon, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross of Central New Jersey. The agency was helping all victims with food and clothing, and was on standby as complex managers place the victims in new apartments.

"That might not be able to happen until tomorrow, so we're here as a safety net,'' Concannon said.

It was the second fire in some eight months to destroy an apartment building at the complex. On Sept. 2, a blaze destroyed eight units of building 59 and left 45 residents temporarily homeless, officials said at the time.

When asked about the two blazes, Mayor Jun Choi said the township "cannot predict the rate of fires,'' but can still focus on fire prevention and control them when they happen.

"Obviously it's an unfortunate incident, but our emergency response team did a fantastic job getting onto the scene and minimizing the damage,'' said Choi, who was at the scene.

The development, off New Durham Road, was also the site of a massive explosion in March 1994 that was sparked by a leak in a natural gas pipeline.

www.myfoxny.com

Edison, NJ, Apartment Complex Fire

Last Edited: Wednesday, 29 Apr 2009, 4:34 PM EDT

Created On: Wednesday, 29 Apr 2009, 1:40 PM EDT

MYFOXNY.COM - A three-alarm fire swept through an apartment complex in Edison, N.J., on Wednesday. Flames completely engulfed one building but fortunately, there were no reported injuries.

The blaze broke out around 1 p.m. on Reading Road. Everyone in the apartments at the time got out.

So far, two buildings were affected: 52 Reading Road and 39 Reading Road. Fire was on the roof of 52 Reading and some apartments reportedly collapsed.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

The Star-Ledger

2009/04/30 Thursday

Edison fire displaces 40 apartment residents

By TOM HAYDON

STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Dozens of people yesterday fled from an Edison apartment building to escape a fire that destroyed at least eight units and sent smoke high enough to be seen for more than 5 miles away.

Nobody was injured in the fire at building 52 in the Durham Woods Apartments off New Durham Road that was reported at 12:44 p.m. At least 31 adults and nine children were forced to relocate to other apartments in the complex.

Yasmeen Scudder, 20, arrived home from work hours earlier and was sleeping in her second-floor unit when she was awakened by people yelling. Then she saw smoke coming through air vents and rushed to the door, only to find her escape blocked by fire.

"A whole bunch of smoke came in. I didn't know what was going on. I went to the balcony, and people yelled to go out the door. I said I couldn't," Scudder recalled as she watched firefighters working hose lines to put out the blaze.

"I went over the balcony. I had to jump and they caught me," Scudder said, referring to other tenants who were already out of the building.

The first firefighters at the scene saw flames and smoke engulfing the east end of the building, fire Chief Norman Jensen said. "It was burning for quite a while."

Firefighters spraying water from an aerial ladder were at times surrounded by the thick billowing smoke and hidden from the view of complex tenants who stood outside other buildings.

The roof collapsed for more than half the building, and one brick wall collapsed as a stream of water gushed out the back of the building.

Eight apartments at the west end of the building sustained far less damage, officials said. Police and fire officials are still investigating the cause of the fire.

Red Cross volunteers were assisting victims of the fire yesterday.

This was the second fire in the Durham Woods complex in seven months. In September, families were forced out of 14 apartments in a fire that caused a breezeway to collapse and crash down on three township firefighters who had to be pulled free of the debris.

Jensen yesterday said he knew of no code violations at the complex that might contribute to fires starting in the units.

Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@starledger.com or (732) 293-4928.

PHOTO CAPTION: 1. Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze that destroyed at least eight apartments in Edison yesterday. It is the complex's second fire in seven months. CREDIT: 1. MATT RAINEY/THE STAR-LEDGER

The Home News Tribune

April 30, 2009

Investigators on scene to determine cause of Edison apartment fire

By JOSHUA BURD

Staff Writer

Fire officials have returned to the Durham Woods apartment building where a blaze on Wednesday destroyed eight units and forced more than 30 people to evacuate their homes.

Township and county investigators were at the scene Thursday morning to determine the cause and origin of the smoky fire, which is not being considered suspicious in nature.

At about 11 a.m., officials were escorting tenants into the eight units that were not completely destroyed to get their possessions.

The three-alarm fire at 52 Reading Road, reported at 12:44 p.m. Wednesday, produced smoke that could be seen for miles. Witnesses and first responders saw the building fully engulfed in flames, and one neighbor said they saw a woman jump from her second-floor balcony down to several people who were waiting to catch her.

Before long the east end of the 16-unit building was reduced to a charred frame, and its roof had collapsed into the ground floor.

Authorities said none of the dozens of tenants, including nine children, were injured. The victims were either being relocated to vacant apartments or helped by the American Red Cross of Central New Jersey.

The Home News Tribune]

April 30, 2009

Firefighters salvage few items from Edison apartment building, probe blaze cause

By LALITA ALOOR AMUTHAN

Staff Writer

A child's stroller, a shoe and two bags of clothes is what firefighters recovered yesterday from Apartment 52-D which was destroyed in the blaze at the Durham Woods apartment complex Wednesday.

The apartment's tenants, Yasser Rather and his wife were standing nearby and shook their heads in dismay.

The stroller, which belonged to their 1-year-old daughter, was covered in soot and had to be thrown away along with the clothing.

However, in a stroke of luck for Rather and his family, they were in the process of moving to another place before the fire occurred. "We had already moved about 80 percent of our stuff," he said.

The couple was among several people at the complex Thursday who tried to salvage possessions from the 16-unit building, half of which was destroyed. Firefighters were able to retrieve items from the eight apartments that were not completely gutted, township Fire Chief Norman Jensen said yesterday.

The cause and origin of the three-alarm fire were still unknown Thursday, in part because demolition crews knocked down parts of the building that township and Middlesex County investigators needed to inspect, Jensen said.

Officials, however, continue to believe the fire was accidental in nature, Jensen said.

The blaze, reported at 12:44 a.m. Wednesday, produced smoke that could be seen for miles and forced more than 30 people to evacuate their homes.

Witnesses and first responders saw the building fully engulfed in flames, and neighbors said they saw a woman jump from her second-floor balcony down to several people who were waiting to catch her. Before long the east end of the 16-unit building was reduced to a charred frame, and its roof had collapsed into the ground floor.

Next door to Rather's apartment, outside apartment 52-B, roommates Raj Karru and Sumanth Gupta waited anxiously to see what could be recovered of their belongings.

A firefighter came out with a laptop.

"It is wet and totally gone, nothing is left of it," Karru said, after examining it.

He said the same was true of other items including a camera and a soggy wallet.

His face lit up though when he saw a black brief case in the firefighters' hands.

Karru quickly rummaged through the contents and was pleased to see that his documents, including a passport, school transcripts and other papers, were all intact.

"We are happy that we are alive and we got our documents with us," Gupta said.

Karru and Gupta were at home Wednesday when the fire occurred. They ran out — without taking anything — when neighbors knocked on the door screaming "fire."

Gupta said they are currently "stranded." They were staying at the accommodations provided by the Red Cross, and had yet to figure out where to go next.

"We are thinking whether to stay here (Durham Woods) or not," Karru said, acknowledging that this was the second fire in six months at the complex.

Jensen, the fire chief, said firefighters "learn right from the beginning" to help victims salvage items that can be saved because such things become important in the case of a fire.

"There were quite a few people there trying to get a few things from their homes, and I think we did a good job helping them," he said.