(Stop & Shop photos by Adam Ginsburg; fire photos by Paul Haggerty.)
It was an extremely busy day for Lyndhurst public safety to say the least, with at least three noted incidents involving the police and fire departments.
It all began at 10 a.m., Friday, Oct. 18, when authorities say they got a 911 call for a smoke condition at the Lyndhurst Stop and Shop at 425 Lewandowski St. Fire Chief Paul Haggerty, also a police lieutenant, says when the department arrived, there wasn’t any smoke, but instead, firefighters were informed of a possible toxic substance inside the supermarket.
Witnesses told the department some were experiencing the effects of pepper spray.
In reality, Haggerty says, there was a liquid Draino spill in one of the aisles, and apparently, a porter likely dragged the substance, which turns to powder, on his shoe, from the area of the spill to a confined area of the store where several people congregated and became irritated. Haggerty says the HAZMAT team was able to determine what the substance was by using several litmus tests.
In all — fortunately — no one was seriously injured, though a few people were treated by EMS at the scene without having to go to hospital. The scene was cleared at around 12:20 p.m., and the store reopened shortly thereafter.
Now as things were wrapping up at Stop & Shop, two firefighters and a Bergen County Sheriff’s officer say they noticed significant black smoke in the sky to the southwest. This brought first responders to 26 Bogle Drive, on a dead end, adjacent to Bergen County Park on the North Arlington border.
Upon arrival, Haggerty says, firefighters found a 2½ story two-family home, the side of which was on fire. Ultimately, the fire spread to an attic, necessitating opening up the home’s roof since it couldn’t be otherwise attacked.
An aggressive attack of the fire knocked it down quickly.
Fortunately in this incident, there were no injuries either.
Haggerty says the fire was sparked by a carelessly discarded cigarette.
Now, earlier in the day, there was an incident at Lyndhurst Middle School, where a fire alarm was set off by conditions caused by burning food. No one was at any risk in that incident, though Haggerty says the students were kept inside during lunchtime as the LFD worked to ascertain what substance caused the incident at Stop & Shop.
Oh and did we mention Haggerty was off duty today?
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.