WOODBRIDGE — Firefighters have spent hours battling a massive blaze that has ravaged two apartment buildings in Woodbridge, displacing dozens of residents.
Officials have not be able to check all the 52 units in the two burning buildings at the Colonial Gardens apartment complex in the Avenel section of the township. They do not yet know whether all the tenants got out safe.
"We don't know if anybody is unaccounted for," Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac said.
He said tenants are being taken to the nearby Avenel Middle School, and workers are talking with each person to determine which unit they occupied.
The fire spread through buildings 36 and 37, which had a total of 52 units, two of which were unoccupied, McCormac said.
"This is 50 units. The people have lost everything," he said.
The township and the Red Cross are assisting the victims.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, Woodbridge Fire Capt. Roy Hoppock said.
As thick black smoke billowed high into the sky, residents said the fire started in a single unit in building 36 of the complex.
"It was small. It was very small," said Kowsi Kasi, who saw the fire from her apartment in nearby building 32.
A fire breaks out at Woodbridge Village Apartments 7-10-2012
A multi alarm fire broke out on Tuesday at the Woodbridge Village Apartments in Avenel at around 3pm and engulfed the complexes 36 and 37 buildings as firefighters from multiple companies battled the blaze. (Video by William Perlman and Patti Sapone/The Star-Ledger)
Watch video
Kasi said she ran to building 36 and began knocking on doors.
Joseph Williams was in his apartment at 3610 when someone banged on his door.
"They said, 'Fire next door!' I grabbed my cat and my cane and I ran," Williams said as he sat on the grass away from the smoke and cradled his 3-year-old black and white cat Omega.
Williams wore only one sandal. He said he didn't have time to get the other one.
Vittal Thumsi said he was in his apartment at 3722 when someone knocked on his door. He grabbed his sleeping 5-year-old son and ran out.
"People were all in a panic, running here and there," Thumsi said. "People were trying to help each other. It was flames coming out of one house."
Several people said the fire appeared to start in a second-floor apartment.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/07/firefighters_battle_blaze_at_w.htmlLuckily it wasn't my complex. The people went to my school for shelter.
