A massive 12-alarm fire tore through several warehouses in Belleville on Sunday, forcing road closures, a state of emergency and school shutdowns for Monday. Officials said there were no injuries or deaths.
Firefighters got the first call shortly after 2:30 p.m. for a blaze at a cluster of warehouses on Cortland Street near Joralemon Street in the Valley section, and the response quickly swelled to between 40 and 50 agencies. By the time Mayor Michael Melham reached the scene, he said the fire was already ripping through the buildings.
Melham, who said he was in his nearby office when he heard the first trucks rolling out, described the scene as a firestorm fed by the materials inside the warehouses. First responders believed the blaze began at a mattress warehouse and spread fast to surrounding buildings. Melham said the site was packed with highly flammable material, including fabric, foam and cardboard, and that crews were trying to control it with fading water pressure. “It was basically like trying to put a forest fire out with a garden hose,” he said.
The fire moved with the kind of speed and force that made a normal warehouse response impossible. Strong winds carried embers blocks away and started smaller fires. Water pressure in the area began to drop and then cut out completely while firefighters were drawing water, and PSE&G shut off gas and electric service to the area to limit the danger. The police department, just a few blocks away, said its 911 system went down momentarily.
The fire’s reach went beyond the warehouses themselves. Roads were closed, the state of emergency was declared Sunday, and local schools were closed for Monday. The incident also disrupted utilities and emergency communications in the neighborhood, making the firefight harder even as more crews arrived.
Melham called the warehouses a tinder box, saying a mattress warehouse with fabric and foam sat next to a cardboard warehouse. That is why the blaze spread so quickly, why embers traveled, and why the response drew so many agencies from across the region. For Belleville, the immediate answer to the question of damage was clear by Sunday night: the fire was contained without loss of life, but it had already thrown the Valley section into a full-scale emergency.
