HILLSBOROUGH – The water pressure remains low because of aging hydrants and an outdated underground plumbing infrastructure. The sprinkler system continues to be inadequate.
The high-intensity lighting, which fire officials believe contributed to the massive inferno, is unchanged. And the township continues to have no jurisdiction over the federally-owned property with regards to it adhering to local codes and regulations.
One year after an epic, five-alarm fire at the Veterans Industrial Park that started just before 3 p.m. on Feb. 11, 2016, raged overnight in freezing temperatures and high winds into Friday night and caused more than $50 million in damages, nothing has been done to improve fire protection on the site.
The blaze required more than 500 firefighters from over 30 communities and five counties – Hunterdon, Mercer, Morris, Warren and Somerset – and approximately 200 fire vehicles to extinguish.
“None of the issues regarding the fire’s growth, size, intensity, spread, the commodities being stored, the large supply capabilities of the warehouses and the sprinkler system deficiencies have been addressed,” said Hillsborough Chief Fire Marshal Chris Weniger. “Nothing has been done.
“Am I concerned a fire of this magnitude could happen again? I’m very concerned. Unfortunately, 10 or 11 years ago, I told whoever would listen to me that this was a problem and this could happen. I’m still saying the same thing. The reality is the same commodities and more are in those warehouses today that were there at the time of the fire and there has been no improvement in fire protection.”
Weniger, who has been chief fire marshal in the township for the past 18 years, said the primary problem remains the same. He said the township still has no jurisdiction over the federally-owner property that is leased from the government by Quadrelle Realty Service, a Larchmont, N.Y. company that has merged with IRG Realty Advisors, which is based in Richfield, Ohio. The company sublets the warehouse space.
“We had have amicable conversations with the leasing company,” said Weniger. “We’ve expressed our concerns. But still, nothing has been done.”
IRG Realty Advisors officials did not respond to nearly a half-dozen phone calls this week seeking comment.
Weniger said the official cause of the blaze following an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives National Response Team is “undetermined.”
“We worked with the ATF on their report and they couldn’t come up with an exact cause,” said Weniger. “We do have a pretty good idea, however. Because of the amount of damage we couldn’t pinpoint an exact cause beyond a shadow of a doubt, but we believe it had to do with the high-intensity lighting in the warehouses and a failure of one or more of those lights.
“When a light burns out or its life span is exceeded, those lights can fail violently. They can fail with a lot of heat. That’s not an uncommon cause of a fire in some of these warehouse fire that occur. We’ve asked the leasing company to either replace the light fixtures or at least replace the bulbs but to my knowledge to date nothing has been done.”
Here are some of the epic fires in N.J. in 2015-16
That the township can not mandate lRG Realty Advisors to act on their concerns because the warehouses are on federal property has been brought to the attention of state lawmakers.
Following the massive blaze, U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-7th) wrote a letter to the General Services Administration asking they conduct a study into making all federal buildings compliant with local regulations. But he was told it would be an “immense undertaking” in which they would have to review the codes of thousands of state and local jurisdictions.
In its response, the GSA said its policy is for state and local government officials to work together with the GSA and make “recommendations for compliance with local regulations.”
This week, two giant concrete slabs remain where the destroyed warehouses once stood. Business appeared to be going on as usual at the remaining warehouses, with trucks loading and departing. All the debris has been cleared from the site of the fire, but there were no signs of any efforts of rebuild.
“It’s my understand that they intend to rebuild and do so up to code, but to be honest, I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Weniger. “The problem continues to be that there is no regulatory oversight, no jurisdictional requirements because it’s federal-owned property.”
Final totals in massive warehouse blaze
Because of the low water pressure, tanker trucks had to be filled at the county’s Emergency Service Training Academy off of Roycefield Road. Once on scene, the water was dumped into portable storage pools for the pumper trucks to draft from.
The blaze was contained to two, 240,000-square-foot buildings.
Inside the warehouses were bulk amounts of furniture, paper records and food goods, but much of the dark smoke that billowed skyward was a result of the plastic pellets stored there.
During World War II and the Vietnam War, buildings on the site had housed clothes, shoes and vehicles for as part of the war effort.
Weniger said it was a perfect storm that contributed to the massive blaze that required heroic efforts from firefighters from across the region. No one was seriously injured. He said he’s forever grateful to the firefighters from neighboring municipalities who responded, many of whom were volunteers.
“I want to express my heartfelt thanks to those firefighters who responded and freely gave of their time and talent, said Weniger. “As I’ve said, if these warehouses had the correct sprinkler protection for the commodities stored there and enough water pressure, there’s a 99 percent chance this fire could’ve been contained and kept very small.
“But the fire grew beyond the sprinkler system very quickly. That, combined with the wind and cold temperatures and the inadequate water pressure, that was three strikes and we had a massive blaze on our hands. Hopefully, the leasing company will realize the urgency of the situation and respond to our concerns.”
Dave Hutchinson may be reached at dhutchinson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DHutch_SL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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