Fire Ravages Jersey City
An enormous fire erupted during the night in Jersey City and firefighters are still combatting it.
It began just before 12:30 a.m. at 333 Central Avenue, spreading swiftly to two more buildings. The flames desecrated a party supply store, passport center and six apartments.
Jersey City Fire Department Chief Darren Rivers explained, "These are older structures. They're attached and once fire gets pretty good headway, it's pretty difficult to contain...It's extremely hazardous and hot fire conditions."
Inhabitants were awakened to loud sirens and an intense atmosphere. Observer Michael Schmidt described, "It looked bad...I came here when that building started to collapse, pieces started falling off the building and stuff like that".
Backup was called five times by firefighters as the strong flames needed additional combat control. Jersey City is now left with burning wreckage. 333 and 335 Central Avenue locations will be demolished. There are no reported injuries and The Red Cross is assisting uprooted residents with provisional housing.