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An explosion at a New Jersey auto body shop sparked a raging 5-alarm fire that destroyed several neighboring businesses in a “harrowing” scene Tuesday evening, according to authorities and reports.
“We had a wall collapse and apparently the entire shopping section of Maple Avenue from Conklin and Winans Avenue has been destroyed,” Hillside Mayor Dahlia Vertreese said in a video posted on her Facebook page as firefighters and first responders swarmed the area.
At least six or seven businesses, including a flower shop, grocery store, and the auto body shop, were burned in the fire sparked by the explosion around 6:30 p.m., the mayor said.
An autobody shop on Conklin Avenue and Maple Avenue on the corner has exploded. There are a lot of cars in there. This will probably be an ongoing fire until the morning. The chief told me this is the second-worst fire in 18 years.
It’s a wide range of products burning and then you have the structure itself on top of that. There’s a gas line that ruptured so it’s a gas fed fire so it’s multiple modalities going on right now to make it difficult.