A fire rippped through a three-story structure in Lakewood this evening, severely damaging it.
The fire broke out approximately 11:30PM at the intersection of 6th Street and Lexington Avenue, sending flames shooting from the building.
Firefighters quickly brought the building under control.
Police are working with Red Cross to try and find the displaced families a place to stay. Approximately 40 people were displaced.
The cause of the fire is under investigation and deemed suspicious at this time, an official told TLS.
[TLS-007/TLS-KF]
Everyone standing by here and watching… and there are many here standing by, are trying to figure out why such a huge response for a small contained fire that was out in minutes. There are literally dozens of fire fighters here, some from nearby towns and there is also a large police presence here but no-one here seems to understand why such a response.. It’s hysterical that everyone showing up on scene are asking around what’s happening that triggered such a response from emergency services.
Cool Masmid,
I hear your confusion and can certainly understand how this appears confusing from your perspective.
To give you and others a little background… the call came out as an active structure fire with possible entrapment in a multiple family dwelling. Flames were reported visible up the side of the structure as can be seen in pictures above. For such a situation an automatic general will be hit out calling for all of LFD to respond. Initially, we are obviously not going to try and guess if it will go out quickly and everyone will be sent. You will see many firefighters on scene, more than may seem necessary, especially in the summer when heat exhaustion is a real concern. Firefighters are required to work in shifts and change out so that they are not dangerously overstressed. If you’d like an inkling of the feeling of working with heavy gear and equipment put on a coupe layers of heavy winter clothing wrap yourself in a heavy blanket and carry a couple of 10 pound sacks of potatoes up and down a set of stairs 50 times. Hence, more firefighters so there are enough to work safely in shifts. Mutual Aid from surrounding towns is also an automatic alarm for all generals. There are also RIT teams – crews dedicated on scene solely to respond if firefighters get trapped or hurt. This is the reason for seeing out of town fire departments. Lakewood will also send help to surrounding towns when needed as per prearranged agreements. Again, we’re not guessing that it’s going to go out quickly. Far better to have an adequate response and have more than necessary than to have too small a response which can have serious even deadly consequences. We’re always glad when it turns out to be a “small fire” that goes out quickly but it’s very sound protocol to have a proper response even if it’s seemingly not needed.
As for the number of PD and other organizations on scene you will have to ask them.
WOW!! Simple, the response is so large because of the size of the building and the amount of people in the building. You can always send home the equipment you don’t need, but if you need the equipment and you then have to call for it, it is a lot of time lost.
There is nothing cool about your posting masmid. How about being greatful that those brave fire fighters were doing a selfless act of courage and bravery to help others in such a perilous situation. Clearly your eyes must have been focused on some where else and not the house that was burning as seen in the video. Shame on you for being so callus in a time of one’s despair.
Maybe you’ll be a volunteer… wake up in the middle the night, spend your own gas money to go to the fire and come back, wake up your family when the alarm go on; Buy Gatorade because you’re dehydrated get some food because you need to replenish
Take a shower after you dirty in sweat use your water
Keep complaining cool Masmid
Jbw- thank you for taking the time in explaining it to me … and to most probably the many others who are thinking the same.
To be clear I wasn’t making light of the situation last night (I see Einstein and Really are all worked up). Just it seemed hard to understand it and many were just coming on scene trying to make sense of it. But you taking the time to explain fire fighter procedures and protocols it all makes perfect sense.
Thank you again for your service.
(moderated) how could 41 people fit in that one building? I think perhaps it was dangerous to begin with.
I live in a town the same size as Lakewood. We have a total of 6 residence fires a year,usually the winter due to flue fires. Has no one ever researched why there are so many residence fires in Lkwd?
Officials suspecting arson.
Cool Masmid ain’t cool and ain’t a Masmid. Just ungrateful, even if he backs down later. Like being an arsonist and then putting out the fire.
kept cool- wasn’t backing down from anything as there’s nothing to back down from. Was merely explaining myself…
why so many people living there
Jbw- thank you for explaining and educating the public on the protocols of fire response. All LFD members take great pride in the Township of Lakewood and took an oath to keep all of the people in the Township of Lakewood safe including putting their lives on the line at each call to do so. Any small fire/incident can become large fires/incidents in seconds if not minutes which is why a large response is always better than a small response. Thank you to the members of the Lakewood community as your support and encouragement for the LFD is what makes all of the work, risk and training worth it. Cool Masmid thank you for keeping an open mind and now understanding that the LFD only wants to help and keep people safe. Stay safe everyone
Amazing fire departments, including dedicated volunteers. Thanks for your time and work and puttng your lives on the line to keep us safe.
just thankful no one was harm.
go OVAID go lakewoods best fireman