By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Federal officials have yet to give any indication what started last Thursday’s industrial park blaze that is likely the largest fire in Hillsborough history.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent its national response team to Hillsborough in the midst of a five-alarm fire that destroyed two 1,200-foot-long warehouse buildings in the Veterans Industrial Park on the west side of Route 206 between Brown Avenue and Camplain Road.
A fire alarm, activated when water sprinkler systems kicked on, came in at about 3:50 p.m. Thursday. The fire, fanned by high winds, quickly engulfed the buildings. Firefighters from five counties rallied to help and worked through the night. More than 200 emergency vehicles were on site.
There were several thoughts and images that lingered into the next week: the selfless work by firefighters in horrendous cold, the immediate and complete effort by regional fire companies to help and the public’s willingness to pitch in to do anything they could think of.
“I think the response of everyone was something to be very proud of,” Mayor Frank DelCore said Tuesday. He said he was impressed with the organization to get supplies and water to the site, and the coordination of rotating equipment and personnel.
The way local emergency response teams worked in very difficult conditions — temperatures in the teens and wind chills below zero — was “a testament to how dedicated our volunteers are,” he said.
Officials said at a press conference late Friday morning that the fire had basically been contained, but was still burning and was likely to continue through the day. Light snow followed by a steady rain on Monday finally suffocated the fire.
Plumes generate health threat
Gray-black clouds that could be seen for dozens of miles around filled the skies through Friday. A chemical smell that lingered into Friday, combined with community knowledge of the prior storage of thousands of barrels of mercury at the site for decades, raised community fears of health threats, which were quickly rebutted by township officials.
The complex is owned by the federal Veterans Administration and leased to a company that subleases the space.
In a post on his blog of local historical topics, township resident Greg Gillette recalled a 2010 article he wrote that said the former General Services Administration’s site was just one of 117 federal depots charged with stockpiling 93 strategic commodities. He cited a 1978 New York Times article that said there were 2,659 tons of mercury stored in steel flasks, and “an electronic sniffer that could detect mercury odors as small as between one and two parts per million was employed in the warehouse. It was noted that inhalation of mercury vapors ‘can damage the brain and kill.’”
Mayor DelCore specifically rebutted rumors of the threat of mercury contamination. He said combined local and federal efforts removed the last of the mercury in 2010, when it was sent to storage in Nevada.
Township Health Officer Glen Belnay said Friday that the smoke plume had “diminished rapidly” and that data from monitoring stations placed around the area assured him enough to be able to say that “at this point there is no imminent public threat.”
Dr. Belnay said the health officials were particularly watching for measurements of particulates — minute bits of burning material carried in the air.
He said equipment placed around the area by state and federal environmental agency experts had made a difference in helping to determine if there was ever a health threat, said Dr. Belnay.
At one point during the night when the winds had stilled, there was one measurement of overexposure and another approaching the threshold, he said. He said the two “spikes” were “outliers” and that all the data of the smoke showed no danger in the total of suspended particulates carried by the smoke.
Mayor lauds regional response
On Thursday night, there were an estimated 200 vehicles on site, said the mayor, who extended “thanks and a debt of gratitude” to the volunteers from the township and at least six other counties.
On Friday, there were still 50 to 100 firefighters at the scene, Chief Fire Marshal Christopher Weniger said.
During the brunt of the blaze, excessive heat fanned by wind — often in their faces — stymied some of firefighters’ normal tactics, Mr. Weniger said. Most wore self-contained breathing apparatus that helped them battle the fire for 30 minutes at a time before they had to be relieved.
There were no occupants in the buildings and near-miraculously only two injuries — one to an eye and one to a leg — to firefighters were reported.
The black plumes likely were exacerbated by “millions of pounds” of plastic pellets, molded to specification, stored in one of the burning buildings, said Mr. Weniger.
Two buildings in the warehouse park burned. Both were about 240,000 square feet — 1,240 feet long, he said. In addition to the plastic pellets, there was a cabinet-making business and a major warehouse for paper records, among others.
Although there are hydrants in the industrial park, much of the water was being carried by fire companies employing a shuttle system from a water source at the nearby county fire training academy on Roycefield Road.
Firefighters were rotated away from the site, either going home or to the fire training facility.
Mayor DelCore said he was “really struck by the number of people who reached out wanting to know how to help in any way — food, drink, a place for firefighters to get warm, coats, blankets” for the “guys who were putting their lives on the line.” The response made him proud to represent the community, he said.
He said anyone who wanted to show appreciation of the firefighters could send donations to the township’s Fire Safety Bureau, and they would be forwarded on.
Typical of the outpouring was a post on a Hillsborough community blog that asked for donations for food and saw more than a $1,000 pledged or sent in two hours.
Businesses and organizations throughout the township unquestionably provided coffee, donations, sandwiches, bottled water and many other items during the firefighting effort.
Derek R. Basista created a gofundme.com site to raise money for a dinner this spring to responders. His company, Charity Events Group, designs and plans events for non-profit organizations. It raised $1,590 from 52 people in four days.
“I feel as if this event would help bring a little spirit and love back into the hearts of many after this horrific event took place . . . Without these brave men and woman, we could have lost so much more. As a young man who has an uncle that worked at this facility for many years, I know first-hand how devastating it can be to lose so much in the blink of an eye.”
Departments from all over central New Jersey dove in to help, with unprecedented cooperation.
Typical was East Windsor Township Vol. Fire Co. No. 1 Chief James “Jim” McCann, who said Monday night that the station’s 3,000-gallon tanker was dispatched 6:10 a.m. Friday. It dropped about 18 loads, said the chief.
His said his station sent two people and remained until 3 p.m.
“It was very cold, icy conditions,” he said. “Salt trucks were salting the areas that fire trucks were working in.”
Scott Kivet, the Middlesex County deputy chief fire coordinator and water supply manager, said Monday that Plainsboro and Monroe tankers also assisted with water shuttle operations. Its tankers, along with Jamesburg and other companies, supplied the equivalent of water to three ladder trucks.
Middlesex County Deputy Chief Fire Coordinator Kivet said that Kendall Park’s ladder from South Brunswick, a ladder from East Brunswick, engines from New Market Fire Department (Piscataway), South Amboy, North Brunswick, Woodbridge and South River.
The ATF’s national response team of veteran special agents works with other investigators to reconstruct the scene, identify the origin of the fire and determine a cause. This was the 11th time a team had been activated in 2016. It has been called upon in the past at such high level incidents as the Oklahoma City bombing of a federal building in 1993, the 9-11 attacks and the West Texas explosion that killed 14 people in 2013.
