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Fire consuming the 408-unit Avalon apartments on Wednesday, leaving more than 1,000 Edgewater residents homeless. The Cliffview Pilot.com photo was taken by Carmen Fuentes. Are residents ill-served by volunteer firefighters? |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
Residents in the booming Gold Coast town of Edgewater deserve better than a volunteer fire force that has failed to extinguish at least three spectacular apartment fires in the past 20 years.
More than 1,000 borough residents were displaced by Wednesday's fire, which was far more serious than what The Record conveys on Page 1 today.
Despite all the residential construction along Edgewater's Hudson River waterfront in recent years, the borough continues to rely on a Volunteer Fire Department instead of employing a professional force.
Are borough officials economizing at the expense of residents and other property tax payers?
First Avalon
The Avalon apartment complex gutted on Wednesday literally rose from the ashes of the original.
The complex was under construction in August 2000, when a fast-moving fire leveled two unfinished apartment buildings, nine nearby homes and 12 cars, according to NJ.com.
Wooden construction was cited as one reason the fire moved so quickly, destroying the buildings in a half hour.
Third fire
Another Edgewater apartment building closer to the Hudson was destroyed by fire in the 1980s, when volunteer firefighters responded, then left, not realizing flames were racing unimpeded through the space under the roof called the cockloft.
According to The Record, Edgewater's volunteer force on Wednesday was assisted by 11 other departments and five NYFD fireboats, but the inferno raged out of control.
"The fire spread to the north end of the complex, unchallenged in its advance, until firefighters from Hillsdale arrived at 8:15 p.m. and started pouring water on that section" (A-6).
Today's Page 1 photo of the Edgewater fire looks like a glamour shot of a firefighter; to see photos that encompass the breadth of the damage, check out Cliffview Pilot.com:
River Road reopens
Slippery slope
In his column on Tuesday, Staff Writer John Cichowski, aka Road Warrior, tried to advise readers on how to drive in icy conditions after Sunday morning's chain-reaction crashes.
Cichowski ignored discussing why anti-lock brakes and vehicle skid controls, which are found on most cars, didn't prevent the crashes or whether a single, out-of-control vehicle or a speeding driver caused the pile-ups.
He did advise drivers to stay two to three car lengths behind the car in front at 20 mph to 30 mph, but those are the safe distances on absolutely dry roads.
According to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:
"Traffic safety experts generally recommend at least 6 seconds of travel time between you and the car in front of you on snowy or icy roads.
"That would require around 180 feet at 20 mph and 280 feet at 30 mph.
"Road Warrior also quoted insignificant safety advice from an 'expert on icy conditions,' who slipped and broke his wrist, and a clueless driver, who crashed his car on an icy road."
See: Road Warrior's slippery slope for drivers
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