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Fast-Moving Fire Kills 2 Girls in New Jersey Death Toll From Fast-Moving Fire in New Jersey Rises to 4, Including 3 Girls
(about 20 hours later)
Two girls were killed on Monday evening when a fast-moving fire tore through a building in downtown Elizabeth, N.J., the mayor said. The death toll from a fast-moving fire in Elizabeth, N.J., rose to four on Tuesday after two bodies were recovered from the ruins left behind by the five-alarm blaze, officials said.
The fire also left a 28-year-old man and a woman who officials “strongly believe” is the dead girls’ mother in critical condition, the mayor, Chris Bollwage said. Investigators were examining whether a metal gate that kept the victims from escaping the burning building Monday evening — and kept police officers who responded to the scene from rescuing them — may have violated safety codes, officials said.
Mr. Bollwage said officials did not have precise ages for the girls, but he described one as 7 to 9 years old and the other as “preteen.” The bodies found on Tuesday were believed to be those of a 41-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl, both of whom had been reported missing the previous night, officials said. The girl’s death brought the number of children killed in the blaze to three, officials said.
The city’s Fire Department received its first call about the blaze, in a mixed-use building on Elizabeth Avenue near Jacques Street, at around 6 p.m., Mr. Bollwage said. The fire quickly went to five alarms, and firefighters from 10 neighboring towns responded to battle it, he said. In announcing the additional deaths, officials provided new details about the victims and about the apparent cause of the fire, and they also corrected some of the information that Mayor Chris Bollwage had shared late Monday after the blaze was brought under control.
The building’s ground floor housed a dollar store, with a furniture store at the front of the second floor and apartments behind that, Mr. Bollwage said. The fire destroyed the building and prompted officials to temporarily relocate 21 people, including some from nearby buildings, he added. The 10-year-old who had been reported missing and whose body was believed to have been recovered on Tuesday was identified by officials as Paola Marquez.
Shortly after the fire started, several police officers who were on patrol in the area rushed to the scene and tried to rescue the girls and the woman from the building, but were prevented from doing so by metal bars on the windows, Mr. Bollwage said. She was in a furniture store on the second floor of the building, on Elizabeth Avenue near Jacques Street, with her mother, sister and a friend when the fire started in a dollar store on the ground floor around 6 p.m., officials said.
Firefighters were ultimately able to extricate them, he added. It was not clear how the man escaped from the building or what his relationship to the other fire victims was, the mayor said. Paola’s sister Daniela, 8, and friend, Elizabeth Correas, 11, were pronounced dead Monday night after firefighters pulled them from the building, officials said. Her mother, Merlyn Vasquez, 36, was taken to Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth in critical condition on Monday and she remained there on Tuesday, officials said.
Ismael Qarizad was working at Crown Fried Chicken and Pizza on Elizabeth Avenue and saw that “fire was flowing,” he said in a phone interview late Monday night. He heard two booms and said the fire looked big, but went back inside before he could fully absorb the scene. Mr. Bollwage, the mayor, had previously said that officials believed the two girls who were pronounced dead Monday night were Ms. Vasquez’s daughters.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire or where in the building it started, Mr. Bollwage said, noting that an investigation was continuing. The woman whose body was recovered on Tuesday was identified by officials as Candida Martinez-Del Reyes. It was unclear what relationship, if any, she had to the other victims, all of whom were from Elizabeth, officials said.
Officials also said on Tuesday that a 28-year-old man had not been hospitalized in critical condition and that there were no apartments in the building, contrary to the mayor’s initial information.
Investigators believe the fire began in a soda machine in the dollar store, officials said. Workers there called the Fire Department after they tried unsuccessfully to douse it with a fire extinguisher, and flames and smoke spread quickly to the second floor, officials said. Firefighters from 10 neighboring towns responded to help battle the blaze, Mr. Bollwage said.
Ismael Qarizad was working at Crown Fried Chicken and Pizza on Elizabeth Avenue and saw that “fire was flowing,” he said in a phone interview late Monday. He heard two booms and said the fire looked big, but went back inside before he could fully absorb the scene.
Once they became aware of the fire, the victims tried to flee from the furniture store via the way they had come in, but they turned back after encountering thick smoke, officials said.
They tried a different exit at the back of the store, where they came up against the metal gate, which they were unable to open, officials said. Several officers also failed to get it open. Firefighters ultimately extricated Ms. Vasquez and the two girls, but it was too late to save their lives, officials said.
Property records show that the building is owned by OK Roger Realty of Brooklyn. City officials said the building had no open violations and that previous violations had involved signage and trash disposal.
A message left for a man identified on corporate records as an officer with the company was not returned.
Bryan Pietsch contributed reporting.Bryan Pietsch contributed reporting.