Jack Almaghrabi, the owner of Paradise Discount, was just opening his business when he began to see smoke coming from the second floor of the building Wednesday morning.
“I saw thick smoke and that was it,” said the owner, reasonably upset. “This is my business. It is all I have.”
At approximately 9:30 a.m. on May 22, a five-alarm fire broke through the roof of Paradise Discount, a two-story department store located on Bergenline Avenue and 32nd Street. Jeff Welz, co-director of the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue Department, believed that the second floor was used as a storage room.
Almaghrabi said that he and six other employees had been inside the store for only five or 10 minutes before they called 911.
Stopping the fire from spreading
When the firefighters arrived, there were heavy fire conditions on the second floor of the building.
Welz explained that the stock stored on the second floor of the building caused the fire to take off rapidly.
“The roof and all the floors in the building have already caved in, and we are only a half-hour into it,” said Welz outside the fire scene.
Welz said that because the roof and floors had collapsed, the firefighters had to battle the fire defensively from outside the building, and that the department’s first priority was to make sure the fire did not spread to the other buildings on the block.
According to Welz, the fire did not spread to the Trust Company Bank building next to Paradise because the bank building has a sodden, masonry wall, which is sturdy enough to stop a fire. The firefighters also cut a trench on the opposite side of the building, next to a long-time fruit market, to stop the fire from spreading.
Welz explained that a trench is a four-foot wide hole cut into a flat roof, running the entire length of the roof, that stops the fire from spreading horizontally.
“If we didn’t do that, the fire would have spread across the entire block,” said Welz. “We’ve learned that in a row of stores like this, the most important thing is to build a trench on either side of the building.”
The fire was determined to be under control by 12 p.m.
An investigation
Although a full investigation is currently underway to determine the cause of the fire, Captain Brian Barrett, the detective bureau commander who was on the scene of the fire, said that the fire seems to be unsuspicious.
A preliminary investigation involving interviews with each of the six employees inside the building when the fire started supported the claim that the fire was unsuspicious.
However, Barrett did say that due to the extensive damage to the building, which would wipe out clues of foul play, he thinks the cause will possibly remain undetermined.
Barrett added that the city’s Arson Investigation Unit will investigate the cause.
Union City Mayor Brian Stack said that the city will help the business owner any way it can.
North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue was assisted by Harrison, Jersey City, Hoboken, and Secaucus fire departments.
Amada Avila, the city’s Urban Enterprise Zone coordinator, said the discount store has been in operation since March, 1997 and became a member of the UEZ in 1998.