A four-alarm fire badly damaged several businesses in Bloomfield Tuesday, including a well-known florist shop.

The fire started Tuesday morning on Washington Street, just off Bloomfield Avenue. Black plumes of smoke could be seen for miles after the fire started, causing some traffic delays on the Garden State Parkway.

As firefighters fought the blaze, the owner of Roxy Florist could only stand and watch as his business burned on his 89th birthday.

“I’ve been here 64 years in that corner, in that flower shop,” says Nicholas Zois. “I’m a Korean vet and when I came out of the service and out of the Army hospital, I came here and started the flower shop.”

Zois owns the full building, which also contains several other businesses. Dmetriotis Vandemark co-owns a recording studio on the second floor.

“We lost everything. All of our equipment is gone. Everything is gone,” she says.

This includes instruments and hard drives containing completed music.

Fire officials say that they believe that the fire began on the first floor of the building.

“The fire was burning throughout the floors and the walls of the building and it became too dangerous to operate inside,” says Bloomfield Fire Chief Lou Venezia.

There were no reports of any physical injuries in the fire – just emotional ones.

“I’m looking at all those windows. I put them in. I built them and I see them gone, it hurts,” says Zois.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.