ATF to investigate cause of massive warehouse fire in Elizabeth industrial complex

The fire, which destroyed three large warehouse-style buildings and damaged two more, was still smoldering on Monday.

Chris Keating

Jan 8, 2024, 10:47 AM

Updated 291 days ago

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Elizabeth officials are getting a hand from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in trying to determine how a massive warehouse fire in Elizabeth started.
Officials say that an Elizabeth resident reported the fire Friday around 5:30 a.m. That person who saw the black smoke rising to the sky. The fire was within the Elizabeth Industrial Park.
That fire, which destroyed three large warehouse-style buildings and damaged two more, was still smoldering on Monday. A ladder crew was seen spraying water on the buildings that burned.
Life around this complex is getting back to normal. Eddy Savva is the owner of George’s Lunch, which is connected to the front of the Industrial Park on Trumbull Street.
“Today is the first day back to normal,” he says.
Savva was at work by 5:45 a.m. on Friday ready to start serving breakfast at 6 a.m. The fire was directly behind him within the complex.
“I didn’t see anything, a couple of minutes later I see the fire trucks go that way, then police cars and they said it was a fire in the back,” Savva says. “When I saw they closed the street and everything, why should I stay.”
Truck traffic is another sign of normalcy. Trucks, which pull into nearby businesses or Port Elizabeth, can move around without detours. School 52 is also open again after being forced to close on Friday.
No one was injured in the fire.