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Fire consuming the 408-unit Avalon apartments on Wednesday, leaving more than 1,000 Edgewater residents homeless. The Cliffview Pilot.com photo was taken by Carmen Fuentes. Are residents ill-served by volunteer firefighters?
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By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
Residents in the booming Gold Coast town of Edgewater deserve better than a volunteer fire force that has failed to extinguish at least three spectacular apartment fires in the past 20 years.
More than 1,000 borough residents were displaced by Wednesday's fire, which was far more serious than what The Record conveys on Page 1 today.
Despite all the residential construction along Edgewater's Hudson River waterfront in recent years, the borough continues to rely on a Volunteer Fire Department instead of employing a professional force.
Are borough officials economizing at the expense of residents and other property tax payers?
First Avalon
The Avalon apartment complex gutted on Wednesday literally rose from the ashes of the original.
The complex was under construction in August 2000, when a fast-moving fire leveled two unfinished apartment buildings, nine nearby homes and 12 cars, according to NJ.com.
So-called lightweight wood construction was cited as one reason the fire moved so quickly, destroying the buildings in a half hour, but the same method was used to build the apartments that burned down on Wednesday.
Third fire
Another Edgewater apartment building closer to the Hudson was destroyed by fire in the 1980s, when volunteer firefighters responded, then left, not realizing flames were racing unimpeded through the space under the roof called the cockloft.
According to The Record, Edgewater's volunteer force on Wednesday was assisted by 11 other departments and five NYFD fireboats, but the inferno raged out of control.
"The fire spread to the north end of the complex, unchallenged in its advance, until firefighters from Hillsdale arrived at 8:15 p.m. and started pouring water on that section" (A-6).
Today's Page 1 photo of the Edgewater fire looks like a glamour shot of a firefighter; to see photos that encompass the breadth of the damage, check out Cliffview Pilot.com:
River Road reopens
Slippery slope
In his column on Tuesday, Staff Writer John Cichowski, aka Road Warrior, tried to advise readers on how to drive in icy conditions after Sunday morning's chain-reaction crashes.
Cichowski ignored discussing why anti-lock brakes and vehicle skid controls, which are found on most cars, didn't prevent the crashes or whether a single, out-of-control vehicle or a speeding driver caused the pile-ups.
He did advise drivers to stay two to three car lengths behind the car in front at 20 mph to 30 mph, but those are the safe distances on absolutely dry roads.
According to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:
"Traffic safety experts generally recommend at least 6 seconds of travel time between you and the car in front of you on snowy or icy roads.
"That would require around 180 feet at 20 mph and 280 feet at 30 mph.
"Road Warrior also quoted insignificant safety advice from an 'expert on icy conditions,' who slipped and broke his wrist, and a clueless driver, who crashed his car on an icy road."
See: Road Warrior's slippery slope for drivers
It's definetly not the F.D.'s fault. Once fire gets into a truss you can expect collapse within 5 to 10 minutes. The F.D. conducted a large scale evacuation of hundreds of people in a very small amount of time with no injuries. You should direct your critism at the people who make the state building and fire code.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. Why is that form of construction allowed except that is much cheaper than using cinder blocks and concrete? There is an Avalon complex in Hackensack and if be worried if I lived there.
DeleteI'd be worried if I lived there.
DeleteAvalon in Hackensack is exactly the same type of construction as Edgewater's complex. They built these buildings to code. That's the real problem "the building code". The code actually helps these developers build the huge wooden buildings. Once they put the sprinkler system in the building there are "trade offs", they can increase exit distances most notably. The exits are where the building standpipe system is located. The standpipe is how the F.D. Is going to get hose lines in service inside the building. Just think of how much extra hose now has to be stretched because of this. How much hose is going to be required to be stretched at Avalon in Hackensack? How many people does it take to stretch all that hose at Avalon in Hackensack? Oh and don't forget you have to evacuate all those people from the building as well. Bottom line is the building is to big and made of wood. They should not be aloud to construct these buildings anymore.
ReplyDeleteSo why hasn't the code been changed since the 2000 fire that took down the first Avalon buildings in Edgewater?
DeleteThe code has not been changed NJ has lucked out for years with these building. There have been fires in these buildings but not to this magnitude. The developers think that these are perfectly safe building because they are sprinklered. The fire service has warned against building this type of structure for years. The towns residents need to contact their elected officials and maybe codes will be changed. That's really the only good that can come out of this situation. F.Y.I. If you want to check another example of this type of structure go to 310 Prospect Ave. in Hackensack. Take a look at it on the third street side.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I will
DeleteI have been censored
ReplyDeleteBy whom?
Delete