Story and photos by Ron Jeffers
The luck of the Irish wasn’t present on St. Patrick’s Day morning in Hackensack, New Jersey, as fire tore through two occupied 2 1/2-story wood-frame dwellings on Park Street.
Police responded to a call of a fight and found a fire in 433 Park St. and summoned the fire department. The Hackensack Fire Department dispatched six companies at 4:56 a.m. on a report of a fire by the police with “possible victims.”
Arriving companies found a working fire on the ground floor that was extending through the structure and to the “D”exposure在435公园。因为迅速恶化的电导率itions, members were ordered out of the structures for adefensiveattack, which included twoladder pipes.
Deputy Chief Andrew Pawlic called in mutual aid from Teaneck, Ridgefield Park, and Bogota at the height of the blaze, plus a recall of off-duty city firefighters.
One firefighter was injured when he slipped on icy and a resident who was being evacuated from a nearby house suffered an asthma attack after inhalingsmoke, according to Lt. Justin Derevyanik, the public information officer. Eleven residents were displaced and assisted by the American Red Cross.
According to Derevyanik, the house did not have a workingsmoke detector. The city fire department has a program that provides free smoke detectors to residents who cannot afford them, he said.
