On the afternoon of Wednesday, December 21st, the Elizabeth Fire dept was dispatched to a car fire in the basement of 698 Newark Ave, home of the former Burry Biscut Company, a 5,000 X 2,000 warehouse, and home to what unofficial sources say, an illegal car chop shop.  A 2nd alarm was immediatly struck and hell brook loose from there.  Interior conditions rapidly deteriated and crews were forced to evacuate the extremely large warehouse.

Alarm after alarm was struck for anything with water to respond to the scene.  Departments from all over Union and Essex counties responded to assist, but the fire was extremely difficult to access with multiple exterior hand lines and portable deck guns due to several interior collapses.  Due to the combustible material and flammable material inside the structure, the fire burned uncontrollably for over 72 hours  High expansion foam and the Neptune System were used The Union County HAZ-MAT Team was activated and responded to the fire scene, to take air samples.  All readings came back negative for hazardous environments.

The smoke was visible for miles.  The farthest distance recorded, to my knowledge, was in Englewood, NJ, approximately 25 miles north of the fire scene.  The fire was declared under control by the fire chief on Saturday afternoon.  Mayor Chris Bollwage reported to 1010 WINS Radio that firefighters will remain on scene throughout the weekend to monitor the fire.  "There are still pockets of fire inside the basement.  Based on most of the combustibles that have burned in there over the past couple of days, we don't expect any more intense heat or intense fire." Bollwage said.

In order to try and access the fire from the exterior, heavy equipment was bought in to tear down sections of the exterior wall in the basement area.

The fire is currently under investigation, however Mayor Bollwage reported that it's typical to believe that the fire was not an accident.  At this time, there have been no reported civilian or firefighter injuries.  Many news casters covered the fire as it was happening, as well as fire buffs with their cameras, and dv cameras.  Fire Buff organizations, have been extremely busy throughout this major incident.  In the end, a total of 9 alarms were assigned to this fire.

This post is dedicated to the members of the City of Elizabeth Fire Department, the City of Newark Fire Department, Union Fire Department, the Union County Hazardous Materials Team, and all of the mutual aid departments, both career and volunteer for their extreme efforts to bring the fire under control.  Also, I would like to personally congratulate every single member that operated this fire, along with the civilian contractors and other emergency services personnel that operated this fire, and finally the several news stations that kept citizens up to date during the incident.