Saying he didn’t know what he was going to do next, Adel Sidhom, the owner of an Avenue C property gutted by a Sept. 5 fire, has asked for an investigation.
“This is the third fire I’ve had in these buildings in two months,” he said.
The blaze, which destroyed three buildings on Avenue C near 16th Street, is currently under investigation by city and state fire officials, many of whom were still scrambling through the wreckage of the building last week, looking for clues to its cause.
Fire officials said the fire was reported at 3:20 a.m. on Sept. 5 and took 10 Bayonne fire companies (suplemented by two Jersey City companies) two and half hours to extinguish.
The fire apparently started at 382 Avenue C and spread to two adjacent structures: 380A and 382 Avenue C at the corner of 16th Street.
The fire gutted Sidhom’s buildings while leaving one house on the corner with extensive smoke and fire damage.
Sidhom, who owns 380 and 380A, believes the two buildings will probably have to be torn down. The third building, owned by Robert Bellia, who runs a contracting business out of the building, might be saved since it suffered less damage, officials said.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Sidhom said. “After the investigation is over, the buildings will have to come down.”
At one point during the firefighting effort, the roof of the gutted building collasped, but firefighters got away from the building before it happened, preventing serious injury.
Sidhom said he has operated his accounting firm out of the same location for the last 26 years, although after the previous fires, he had to temporarily suspend business while he conducted repairs.
“I’ve had no income for six months,” he said.”I must have put in $100,000 in remodeling the upstairs.”
Seeking justice
He shrugged as if to say the money had simply gone up in smoke. “I don’t know what the insurance carrier will say,” he mumbled.
Sitting on a stoop across the street from his ruined buildings, Sidhom smoked cigarettes and drank coffee as he watches the investigators work.
A survivor of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, Sidhom said he was seeking justice for whomever set the blaze.
“This doesn’t just hurt me, it hurts everybody, including the taxpayers of Bayonne,” he said.
Fire officials said the matter is still under investigation.
The fire, he said, started in the building next to his. He was alerted a few hours after the firefighters arrrived on the scene.
“There was no one in the building. It had no gas or electricity,” he said.
Mayor Joseph Doria apparently came to the scene early and returned frequently to check on the progress of the firefighters.
Cars were directed away from the area due to the risk of falling debris as well as the intensity of smoke that filled streets and yards for several blocks.
Nearby buildings were evacated, city officials said, to assure the safety of the residents, although once the fire in the three buildings was extinguished, residents were allowed to return.