Multi-Alarm Building Fire in Plainsboro
Multi-alarm blaze heavily damages Plainsboro strip mall
Posted by The Times of Trenton May 25, 2007 8:59PM
http://blog.nj.com/timesupdates/2007/05/multialarm_blaze_heavily_damag.html
PLAINSBORO -- A stubborn, multiple-alarm inferno that was difficult for
firefighters to access Friday afternoon raged throughout the attic and roof of a
Plainsboro Road strip mall, destroying several stores and damaging many others.
Michael Ratcliffe/The Times
Flames leap from the roof of the Princeton Meadows Shopping Center in Plainsboro
on Friday afternoon.
There were no immediate reports of any serious injuries, although officials said
emergency medical personnel treated dozens of firefighters on the scene for
exhaustion and other heat-related ailments.
Fire companies from throughout Middlesex and Mercer counties -- from as far
north as Sayreville and Trenton to the south -- responded to the Princeton
Meadows Shopping Center as Plainsboro Fire Co. commanders, confronted with
"heavy fire" conditions and 90-degree weather that quickly sapped firefighters'
energy, sounded at least five alarms.
The cause of the blaze was under investigation Friday night, but police said it
appears to have been accidental and is believed to have started in the attic
space or roof above the Hot Breads bakery, located near the center of the
L-shaped strip mall at 660 Plainsboro Road.
Michael Ratcliffe/The Times
Firefighters used a half-dozen ladder trucks to pour water down onto the
stubborn flames.In addition to the bakery, the flames destroyed Aljon's Pizza &
Sub Shop, the First Szechuan Pavilion Chinese restaurant and Dr. Madhavi
Kadiyala's Dental Illuminations dental office.
Adjacent stores that sustained varying degrees of fire, smoke and water damage
included the Wireless Depot phone store, the Asian Food Market, the Curves for
Women gym, and Reeya's Salon.
Plainsboro police officers and firefighters were summoned to the shopping center
at 2:25 p.m. by a 911 call made by someone in the bakery reporting a fire in the
ceiling. When the first emergency responders arrived just minutes later, thick
smoke was billowing from the center of the mall's roof, police and fire
officials said.
Officers and firefighters immediately began evacuating people from all the
stores in the mall.
See Saturday's Times for more on this story.
Contributed by Michael Ratcliffe
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