4 NJ MAB Bus responded to a five alarm fire and provided fire fighter support

Fair Lawn was one of 17 area towns that provided mutual aid on a five-alarm structure fire in Elmwood Park Sunday that crews battled through the night and into the early morning.

The cause of the fire, which started around 8 p.m. between the double roofs of the Soundview Paper Company –formerly Marcal Paper Mills — is still under investigation, but Elmwood Park Fire Chief Michael Sulick, Jr. said it’s not considered suspicious.

The fire, now under control, proved difficult to fight because of the building’s double roof configuration.

“The fire is between the roofs, so we had to cut the top roof, flood it, put the fire out and we’ve been chasing the whole roof,” said Sulick, Jr., who called the damage, “extensive.” “The integrity of the roof, by the time we’re done, will be no more.”

Fair Lawn Fire Company 1 Captain Joe Wensell explained that the manufacturing plant’s activities produce large amounts of highly flammable paper dust that builds up in the void between the double roofs and poses a fire hazard.

“The dust gets up in that void and, for some reason, every eight or 10 years something happens and you get a fire up there,” said Wensell, who responded to a similar fire at the paper mill a few years ago. “So you basically have dust burning inside the roof structure, and it’s not easy to get at.”

To get at the actual fire that remained contained between the roofs, crews had to go through the extremely laborious process of cutting through the roof of the giant paper building, two-feet by two-feet.

“It’s metal decking with a fiber glass thing and then there’s several layers of foam on top of that, with tar and then tar paper on top of that,” Wensell said. “So you’re chopping apart tar, peeling away foam and insulation and everything. It’s a chore. It’s very labor intensive, which is why you see so many guys.”

Sulick, Jr., said fire crews from Elmwood Park and 16 surrounding towns had responded to the fire and were rotating every half hour.

One firefighter from Garfield was taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion, he said.

The building was still smoking as of 2 a.m. Monday, but Sulick, Jr., said it was under control and that he expected crews to finish up by about 4 a.m.

A roofing company will be visiting the site Monday to begin repairs, he said.