March 2005
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Gas-hauling tractor-trailer explodes, killing driver The driver of a tractor-trailer loaded with gasoline was killed yesterday when the vehicle overturned and exploded while leaving the New Jersey Turnpike at Interchange 11, police said. Jasvir Singh, 25, of Middlesex, died in the accident, which shut down the exit for the southbound truck lanes for several hours, authorities said. State Police Lt. Kevin Rehmann said the truck was carrying a full load of 8,500 gallons of gasoline when it toppled and immediately caught fire. Almost all the gas burned, Rehmann said, leaving none on the roadway. Thick black smoke was visible miles away. Rehmann said no other vehicles were involved and the cause of the accident was under investigation. Police said they got the first call at 11:43 a.m. about the accident. Singh was a driver for Dhandi Transport, a Deptford-based trucking company, said its co-owner, Sarabjit Singh, who was not related. Jasvir Singh had a wife and 6-month-old daughter in Middlesex, and he had been with the company for just a year, Sarabjit Singh said. ‘‘This is very sad,’’ he said. W o o d b r i d g e and Carteret firefighters responded to the blaze, near the Bunns Lane neighborhood of Woodbridge, as did the State Police, Middlesex County Office of Emergency Management and Port Authority and Woodbridge police. Firefighters used foam to douse the fire. Little of the vehicle remained except for twisted parts of its cab, undercarriage and axles. The accident did not cause any traffic delays on the Turnpike, said Turnpike Authority spokesman Joe Orlando. ‘‘We certainly dodged a really bad situation,’’ he said. John Wieczoreck said he was driving onto the Turnpike when he saw the tractor-trailer flip over. ‘‘It looked as if the truck’s load shifted, like the driver lost control,’’ Wieczoreck said. ‘‘The truck landed on the driver’s side.’’ Dennis Moshopoulous, a resident of Oak Avenue in the nearby neighborhood, said his wife, Donna, heard the screeching of tires, then three small explosions. His home faces the highway, separated by a sound barrier and a wooded knoll. ‘‘I ran outside, thinking a house was on fire,’’ Moshopoulous said. ‘‘I saw the flames and I was concerned about the trees catching fire. You felt the heat. Thank God the wind blew the other way.’’ Down the street on Bunns Lane, Irene Sandor, 80, was resting on the couch when she heard two big bangs. ‘‘The house shook, and then I looked out the window and saw the flame and a big cloud of smoke,’’ she said. Gathering behind the yellow tape closing off the scene, Jasvir Singh’s friends and co-workers remembered him and wondered what went wrong. The truck driver recently immigrated to the United States from the Punjabi city of Jullunder, where his parents still reside, Sarabjit Singh said. They had yet to be contacted, he said. Satnam Singh said he was a friend and colleague of Jasvir’s and had driven the same truck. ‘‘He was a very good person,’’ Satnam Singh said. ‘‘He was a very honest man.’’ Satnam Singh said his friend had a patient, relaxed attitude, and attended the Sikh temple in Bridgewater every Sunday. Jasbir Chandi said the driver was hauling gasoline for his company, P&J Fuel Inc. ‘‘He was not responding when we called, and then we heard on the radio there was an accident on the Turnpike,’’ Chandi said. ‘‘We realized that was him.’’ Chandi said he had helped Jasvir Singh, who had been working at a gas station in Middlesex, get the job as a driver. A funeral probably will be held Wednesday, friends said, but arrangements are pending. The gasoline came from Jasbir Chandi’s company.
Photo: Daniel Swierk / For the Star-Ledger The toppled gasoline tanker burns along the mile-long stretch of road between the southbound Turnpike’s truck lanes and the toll booths at Interchange 11. Traffic on the Turnpike itself was not disrupted. Fireball, plume
of smoke visible from miles away WOODBRIDGE -- An oil tanker burst into
flames yesterday morning near the Turnpike, killing the driver and
shooting a plume of thick, black smoke and orange flames hundreds of
feet into air. Jasvir Singh of Middlesex Borough died when his rig
overturned and caught fire at 11:43 a.m. while he was exiting the New
Jersey Turnpike at Interchange 11, according to a state police press
release. No other injuries were reported. The tanker contained
approximately 8,500 gallons of gasoline, which ignited after the crash,
state police said. The fire engulfed the Freightliner tractor-trailer
and fatally burned 25-year-old Singh, state police said. Singh had been
traveling in the outer lane of the Turnpike, according to Fords Fire
Chief Robert Fizer. Officials closed the lane during initial cleanup
yesterday afternoon, but Fizer was unsure if it had been reopened last
night. The Turnpike, however, was not closed, state police said. Fire
crews cleared charred wreckage from the roadway, and the Turnpike
Authority and Middlesex County HazMat Team planned to clean up any
spilled gasoline, Fizer said. State police said the spill had been
contained. After the crash, a fireball shot upward and could be seen as
far south as Milltown and as far west as Piscataway, according to
reports. In addition to Fords, crews from Woodbridge, Hopelawn, Keasbey,
Iselin, Colonia, Avenel and Carteret fire departments responded to the
scene and remained there for more than six hours. Officials from the
Emergency Management Agency and the state Department of Environmental
Protection were also on hand. Deptford-based Dhandi Transport Inc. owns
the oil tanker Singh was driving, police said. The company is not listed
in telephone or business directories, and owners could not be reached
for comment. State police continue to investigate the accident. Anyone
with information is asked to contact the Cranbury substation at (609)
860-9000. . Edison
Brush Fire Blackens 75 Acres, Winds propel blaze A plume of black smoke rose from Raritan Center yesterday afternoon and could be seen from Rahway to East Brunswick. A brushfire with 30- to 40-foot-high flames burned across 75 to 100 acres, said Middlesex County Fire Marshal Michael Gallagher. The fire burned for almost six hours until firefighters finished dousing the blaze at about 6 p.m., Gallagher said. A dozen municipalities, 23 fire departments (including Woodbridge) and 103 firefighters responded to the scene, Gallagher said. Edison Fire Chief Robert Campbell, who was in command at the scene, said a cause of the fire had not yet been determined. In the past, brushfires in the area have been started by a spark from a passing train, an industrial accident or arson, the chief said. Campbell said the 10- to 12-foot-high reeds are very dry from this point until the late spring, making brushfires more common this time of year. The chief said yesterday's weather conditions led to a longer battle with the fire. He said shifting winds posed a particular problem.
Fireman helps
man escape burning home Through the window of a burning South River house, Stan Ruzicki could see a dazed Edward Sorensen standing in the smokefilled bedroom, struggling to find his way. Ruzicki quickly stacked coolers and metal drums under the window, climbed onto the makeshift step, reached in and pulled the homeowner out moments before the flames flashed across the house at 52 Prentice Ave. ‘‘It had to be that God was helping me,’’ said Ruzicki, the borough fire marshal. South River officials are calling the 33-year veteran of the fire department a hero. ‘‘He was wearing no equipment. It’s very hard to be in that situation with fire overhead,’’ said South River code enforcement officer Steve Behar, who is a fire official in nearby East Brunswick. Sorensen, 30, was taken to St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was admitted for treatment, and was reported in good condition yesterday. His wife, Barbara, who got out of the house by herself, was taken to the same hospital, where she was being evaluated late yesterday. Borough volunteer firefighter Craig Miller was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was taken for smoke inhalation and later released, said borough First Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Murphy. Fifty firefighters from four departments battled the fire, which was reported at 5:48 a.m. It was sparked by an electrical malfunction in a front living room wall or ceiling, authorities said. Ruzicki’s alarm clock went off at 5 a.m., as usual. He was still in bed, slowly waking up when he heard screams coming through the bedroom window he keeps cracked-open at night. ‘‘At first it sounded like a cat meowing. But the second time I heard it, you could hear it was a frantic cry for help,’’ he said. Dashing out of his Sheldon Avenue home, Ruzicki saw the smoke and rushed across three or four backyards to the rear of the Sorensen house, where he found the wife screaming. Edward Sorensen was still inside, his path to the rear door now blocked by smoke and flames. ‘‘This is when the training comes in. Being in the fire service, you are trained to react,’’ Ruzicki said. Building the step against the ranch-style house, Ruzicki calmly told Sorensen he had to come through the window. ‘‘I just told him, ‘We’re going to do the best we can to get you out,’ ’’ Ruzicki said. Ruzicki was unable to recall how long he stood at the window before Sorensen got out and down to the ground. ‘‘Time seemed to stand still,’’ Ruzicki said. But within minutes after the homeowner was outside, Ruzicki saw flames rush through the house, and he knew he had to help Sorensen to his feet and away from the building. ‘‘He needed assistance to get out of the area,’’ Ruzicki said. When Murphy arrived, he saw "fire was rolling through the house.’’ So intense were the flames and heat firefighters struggled for an hour before they could get hoses deep inside the house, Murphy said. Water from the hoses froze on the sidewalks in front of the home. ‘‘The whole inside of the house was gutted. Fire was through the roof,’’ Murphy said. Ruzicki was taken to a borough ambulance that was at the scene, where he was given oxygen and quickly examined by squad members. Then he prepared to start work as fire marshal, going through the remains of the house with other borough officials to determine the cause. He was still working on reports late yesterday, after hearing several residents and officials praise his effort. ‘‘When I sit down tonight, it’s probably going to sink in,’’ Ruzicki said. Asked about the fact he happened to be awake and have his window open, he said, ‘‘I guess it was meant to be.’’
South River firefighters and investigators sift through debris for clues to what caused a fire early yesterday at a home on Prentice Avenue. Top photo: Vic Yepello/The Star-Ledger, bottom photo: Joe McLaughlin/The Home News Tribune
‘Miracle
cat’ survives Woodbridge fire As the apartment filled with smoke, Maxine Kulinich tried desperately to get her daughter’s cat, Holly, from underneath a bed. Kulinich’s daughter, Tracie Mochan, and her granddaughter, Amber, already had fled with their pet dog and another cat, but 8-year-old Holly refused to budge. Kulinich was forced to flee the burning building at 360 Cliff Road in the Sewaren section of Woodbridge without the cat. For hours the family sat in cars behind the house, watching nearly 200 firefighters battle the stubborn blaze that started about 3 a.m. Wednesday in a wall behind a first-floor fireplace, and wasn’t completely extinguished until eight hours later. They thought for sure their pet was lost. So when firefighters let the family back into their apartment around 5 p.m. Wednesday, they were surprised to find the gray-and-beige cat alive. ‘‘We lifted the mattress and bed springs and (Holly) was looking up at me. She stayed there through the entire fire,’’ Mochan said. Holly quickly ran to Kulinich, who called the pet ‘‘a miracle cat.’’ Mochan took the cat to a Woodbridge veterinary hospital, where the pet was treated for smoke inhalation and given prescriptions for antibiotics and steroids. Mochan was told the cat, which a family friend found when she was a kitten, would most likely survive. Holly yesterday was repeatedly sneezing up the smoke and soot she had inhaled. A single parent, Mochan works nights teaching a medical assistance course at a private Woodbridge technical school, and worked weekends at Moby Dick’s tavern in Sewaren. When tavern owner Joyce Mortensen heard about the fire, she called her family and friends and started a collection for Mochan, and invited Mochan and her family in to eat on the house. Mortensen put a sign on a can to take donations, and the response quickly exceeded expectations. In addition to money raised, workers from nearby companies who frequent the tavern came back yesterday with bags of clothes for the mother and daughter. ‘‘My customers — they’re great people, fantastic people,’’ Mortensen said. Mochan said before the fire, ‘‘I felt alone in the world . . . People at Moby Dick’s were so great.’’ Kulinich, a customer service supervisor at Linden Warehouse in Linden, said her company also gave her a gift check, and company employees were collecting donations. In all, nine adults and two children were forced from four apartments in the large Sewaren house, which was built about 1886. Frank Nedza, the owner of the house, relocated Mochan and her daughter to an apartment in another building he owns, and has said he will find apartments for at least two other families displaced by the fire. The fire started accidentally in a wall behind a fireplace in a firstfloor apartment, Lt. Bryan DeLisi of the Woodbridge Fire Prevention Bureau said yesterday. Tara Wilson, who lived in the first-floor apartment with her fiancé, Jason Martin, said the couple started a fire in the fireplace Tuesday night and put out the flames before going to bed about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. When Martin awoke for work about 3:15 a.m., he discovered the fire in the wall outside the house, Wilson said. Authorities said Martin tried to extinguish the fire but was unable to do so. Wilson said Martin banged on other apartment doors to alert neighbors. Police said the fire was reported at 4:21 a.m. The house was originally a summer home called Straphsprey Hall by owner Frederick Grant. Much of the building was knocked down late Wednesday over concerns that the chimney might fall down. Most of the rooms in the house had a fireplace, said Nedza, who bought the building 12 years ago. He plans to rebuild the structure in the same style as the original house. Mochan said Holly is really her daughter’s cat, and the pet sleeps with the girl each night. Kulinich, who is temporarily staying at a hotel, said she got a telephone call from her granddaughter Wednesday night. ‘‘She said Holly is sleeping with me like she always did,’’ Kulinich said.
Blaze ravages
Sewaren Landmark, Firefighters battle flames, the biting cold and wind
Nearly 200 firefighters battled subfreezing temperatures and a stubborn fire that burned a more-than-century-old landmark in the Sewaren section of Woodbridge early yesterday and forced 11 tenants from their apartments in the building. ‘‘Everything is gone. It just burned,’’ said a shaking Margaret Barry, who along with her boyfriend, Carmine Marlin, dashed from their third-floor apartment down a smoke-filled stairway — carrying their 1-year-old son — to escape the blaze in the large house at 360 Cliff Road. ‘‘I saw flames on the side of the house and around the front. I just watched everything burn — all our clothes, all my son’s toys,’’ said Barry, who five days ago had moved with Marlin and their son into one of five apartments in the large Victorian house that a century ago was known as Straphsprey Hall. Woodbridge Fire Chief Dan Powers said he arrived at the scene and quickly called for additional firefighters because of the frigid temperatures. Firefighters from 15 companies — from Carteret to New Brunswick — responded, working in shifts and taking breaks to get warm in buses brought to the scene and the Woodbridge fire house. ‘‘I could take my jacket off, and it would stand up itself,’’ said Second Assistant Fire Chief Joe Leahy, as he stood in front of the house after the fire, his helmet and visor covered with ice, his coat, pants and boots caked with patches of the frozen water. ‘‘In this weather, each night before I put my pager in the recharger, I give it a kiss and say, ‘Please, not tonight. Not tonight,’ ’’ Leahy said. Authorities said a tenant in a first-floor apartment lit a fire in the apartment fireplace about 12:30 a.m. and went to bed a short time later, but when he awoke for work at 3:15 a.m., he discovered the fire was burning out the back of the fireplace, toward the outside wall. Tara Wilson, who lived in a first-floor apartment with her fiancé, Jason Martin, said the couple had a fire in their fireplace Tuesday night, but made sure it was out before going to sleep about 12:30 a.m. She said when Martin awoke at 3:15 a.m. to go to work, he saw flames through the window and awoke her. ‘‘All I saw was the orange lights outside, and (Martin) was yelling to get out,’’ said Wilson, who had lived in the apartment for three weeks. She said Martin ran up the rear exterior stairs of the house twice banging on apartment doors to get people out. As he was coming downstairs the second time, Martin slipped and fell, hurting his back, Wilson said. He was taken to JFK Medical Center in Edison, where he was treated and later released, said Wilson, who was staying at a hotel last night. Police said the fire was reported at 4:21 a.m. Hose lines were quickly set up outside the house, and about 18 fighters took axes and hoses into the three story structure, but by 5:15 a.m., the fire was threatening to collapse the roof, Powers said, and three blasts from an air horn reverberated through the air, signaling crews to evacuate the building. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Frank Nedza, who owns the building, opened his business, Associated Restaurant Services, located directly behind the apartment house at 48 Ferry St., where the tenants went to keep warm. Red Cross workers, who were previously helping emergency personnel in Old Bridge responding to a overturned gasoline tanker trucker, came to the fire scene to help the tenants, providing food, clothing and temporary lodging for some. Nedza said he owns 20 other properties in the Woodbridge-Perth Amboy area, and found other apartments for three of the four displaced families. After buying the building 12 years ago, Nedza said, he replaced the wraparound porch, put in a new foundation and updated the roof, garage and electrical and plumbing systems. ‘‘This was a labor of love,’’ the Woodbridge resident said, as he stood in front of the damaged building, with a nearly burned two-story turret topped with a destroyed crow’s nest balcony. The white siding on the second and third floors was blackened with pieces hanging and waving in the below-freezing wind. All the second-floor windows were broken out. Water streamed off the building, forming icicles. A bare tree in the long front yard was bent with ice that outlined the limbs and trunk. Township officials said the house was constructed about 1886. At the end of that century it became the summer home of Helen Glidden-Grant, the wife of banker Frederick Grant. Glidden-Grant — who later became Helen Tombs when her first husband died and she remarried — became one of the area’s leading citizens, starting the Sewaren Historic Club in 1903. The club later became the Sewaren Federation Women’s Association, which was instrumental in the founding of a public school and Episcopal parish in that section of the township. The original building had an entrance hall with a rectangular stairway leading to the third floor, said longtime Sewaren resident Catherine Burns. ‘‘You could stand on the first floor and see up the third-floor ceiling,’’ Burns said. Straphsprey Hall was named after Straphmore, Scotland, where Frederick Grant’s family lived before coming to America, Burns said. Most of the rooms had fireplaces, Nedza said. Township building officials were deciding whether any of the building could be saved. Nedza, who said his late father helped him upgrade the old house, now plans to rebuild. ‘‘This house is going to come back. It’s going to be stately,’’ he said.
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companies fight Sewaren fire as families flee, Owner vows to rebuild
apartments A three-alarm fire ripped through a Cliff Road home in the Sewaren section of the township early yesterday, displacing four families. "Flames were everywhere. At one point you couldn't see the house," said Mona Carreau, who lives next door. "Nothing but firemen all over. Fire trucks were up and down the street." The fire was reported shortly before 4:30 a.m. and took firefighters more than five hours to get under control, according to fire officials. Jason Martin, a 24-year-old tenant, told police he started a fire in the fireplace at about 12:30 a.m. and went to bed a short time later, according to a township police report. He woke up at 3:15 a.m. to go to work and smelled a strong burning odor, before going into the room with the fireplace and seeing it was on fire, burning toward the outside, according to the report. After unsuccessfully trying to extinguish the fire, he began alerting the occupants of three other apartments, according to the police document. By early yesterday afternoon, icicles hung from the charred exterior as water being pumped out from the house gushed down the front lawn and into the street. Firefighters from at least two of the more than 11 fire companies that responded were still at the scene. "It's very sad, 'cause to me it's a landmark," said Isabelle Klopsch, a Sewaren resident who was watching the cleanup. "Thought it (the house) was beautiful, just beautiful. It really, really belonged there. It's such a pity." Frank Nedza purchased the three-story house 11 years ago as an investment, he said. "It was my therapy," said Nedza, who also owns 18 other rental properties in the township. "Saturdays and Sundays I'd go over there and work on the house." During the past five years, Nedza said, he's replaced the roof and renovated the kitchens as well as the front of the house. He said the structure was more than 100 years old. But the blaze hasn't deterred him. "I don't think it (the fire) really set in yet, but we're gonna rebuild," said Nedza, holding a picture of what the house looked like before the fire. "It's going to look rather nice." A spokesperson for the American Red Cross said the organization assisted with the relocation of the families immediately after the fire. Nedza said three of the four families were relocated to other apartments he owns.
Left: Keasbey's Tower Ladder attacks the fire from the rear of the structure. Photo: Jefferey Konya/The Home News Tribune Top: Remnants of the home after being partially demolished. Photo: Augusto F. Menezes/The Home News Tribune
Gas Blast
Shreds Pet Store: ‘It's amazing they survived’
A natural gas explosion triggered by construction work ripped through a Monmouth County pet store yesterday, demolishing much of the warehouse-size building and injuring five people who were struck or trapped by falling debris. The 11 a.m. blast at the Eatontown Petco, across from the Monmouth Mall on Route 35, sent tremors through homes a mile away and set in motion a frantic effort to rescue injured workers entombed in the building’s basement. The last of the victims, a 34-year-old assistant manager, was pulled from the wreckage at 2 p.m. after leading a search-and-rescue team to her position through cell phone conversations, authorities said. The assistant manager, Jennifer Rohan, was in critical condition last night in Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune with crushing injuries to her legs. An employee of the construction company that ruptured the gas line was in critical condition at the same hospital. Authorities said the man, whose name was not immediately available, rushed into the store to warn employees after a backhoe pierced the gas line in a rear parking lot. Three other people, all Petco employees, suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. Two of the workers, Raymond Woodward and Nick Yacalis, were in fair condition in Jersey Shore Medical Cent e r . The remaining employee , Thomas Lee, 22, was treated at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch and later released. ‘‘It’s amazing they survived,’’ said Sherry Casertano, an employee of a nearby Pathmark supermarket, where the blast knocked grocery items askew and caused ceiling panels to jump several inches. Casertano’s sentiment was a common one among those who surveyed the shattered building, its roof and first floor almost entirely caved in, half its walls reduced to rubble. ‘‘More than half of the building has collapsed. There’s pancaked debris. The first floor is virtually gone,’’ Eatontown Fire Chief John Sanders said. In addition to the human toll, authorities feared numerous animals had been injured or killed in the explosion and ensuing collapse. Officials with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals rescued more than 100 small animals and hundreds of fish by yesterday evening, but many more remained inside. ‘‘We’re going to be here all night,’’ said Buddy Amato, chief cruelty officer for the Monmouth County SPCA. Amato said the Petco was believed to have been housing hundreds of mice, gerbils, guinea pigs, lizards, parrots and parakeets , along with many hundreds of fish. Dozens of small animals were confirmed killed. Steve Dubeck, a regional animal manager for the San Diego-based pet store chain, said surviving animals were taken to Petco stores in neighboring communities. ‘‘Everything I’ve seen has been alive and in excellent condition,’’ Dubeck said, crediting animal rescue efforts as ‘‘nothing short of heroic.’’ Monmouth County First Assistant Prosecutor Robert Honecker said his office would investigate to determine if proper procedures had been followed leading up to yesterday’s construction work. The explosion occurred after a backhoe operator for J.F. Kiely Construction Co., based in Long Branch, pierced a 3 /4-inch gas line while digging a trench to lay an electrical conduit underground. The trench was about 30 yards from the rear of the Petco. John M. Kiely, the company’s secretary and treasurer, said company officials had, as required by law, used the state’s One-Call hotline ahead of the excavation work. Under the One-Call system, all utilities are notified of impending work and are dispatched to mark out utility lines with flags and spray paint. While those markouts had been performed, Kiely said, the gas line was not identified. ‘‘We take this very seriously,’’ Kiely said. ‘‘We hit an unmarked line. We’re not sure what it was.’’ Eric Hartsfield, a spokesman for the Board of Public Utilities, confirmed the One-Call system had been used. He said the state had sent four investigators to the site yesterday to look into the accident, including whether the markout was performed properly and whether the contractor stayed within the terms of the markout. ‘‘We don’t have any nitty-gritty details yet,’’ Hartsfield said. The gas line is noted in the records of New Jersey Natural Gas, and those records had been made available to an independent contractor, Utiliquest, that marked out the site, said Roseann Koberle, a spokeswoman for New Jersey Natural Gas. Calls to Utiliquest offices in New Jersey and Atlanta, where the company is headquartered, were not answered. New Jersey Natural Gas was fined $5,000 in September for a March 1997 incident in which it failed to complete the markout of lines within three days as required by law. Kiely was the contractor in that case. Koberle could provide no information about the incident. Yesterday’s explosion came just moments after the pipe was ruptured, launching a shimmering geyser of vapor into the air. Inside Petco, workers quickly smelled the strong fumes. Employee Alison Hazelet, 20, was grooming a dog, a shih tzu named Cuddles, when she suddenly began to feel nauseated. ‘‘The general manager came by and said, ‘Get out!’ ’’ said Hazelet, who grabbed the dog and fled outside. The dog was later reunited with its owner. At the same time, the construction company employee raced into the building to warn those inside to run, authorities said. It was unclear how many people were inside the store at the time. Employee Jessica Dedalis was working in the store’s ‘‘wellness facility,’’ where sick or injured animals are treated, when co-worker Nick Yacalis rushed in. ‘‘He threw a cage of bunnies at me and told me to get out,’’ Dedalis said. ‘‘I was running toward the door with the cage of bunnies and heard a clicking sound. I figured, that can’t be good. I dropped the bunnies and ran for the door. As soon as I got through the door, it exploded.’’ Yacalis was among those injured, with head, neck and back lacerations, authorities said. ‘‘He really is a hero,’’ Dedalis said. Witnesses called the force of the blast enormous. ‘‘I heard a very loud boom and saw a large cloud of brown smoke and dust,’’ said Adam Sell, 38, a Long Branch resident who was stopped for a red light at the intersection of routes 35 and 36. ‘‘It was such a powerful explosion, I felt it in my chest.’’ Sell dialed 911 and was patched through to the Eatontown Police Department. ‘‘The police asked me ‘Did something hit the building?’ ’’ he said. ‘‘I guess the first thing they thought of was 9/11.’’ At the Pathmark, about 100 yards away, Chris Potter thought a truck had hit the building. ‘‘Everything shook. Everything,’’ said Potter, an assistant manager in the meat department. Everything shook at Rachit Verma’s house, too. Verma, a 20-year-old student at Brookdale Community College, was asleep in his bed, nearly a mile from the Petco, when the trembling house woke him. ‘‘It felt like a mild earthquake,’’ Verma said. ‘‘The bed started shaking. I was like, what’s going on?’’ The blast flattened the Petco’s back wall and parts of its sides, causing the roof to pancake down to the first floor, which in turn buckled and collapsed into the basement. The store’s windows blew out as if shot by a cannon, and its metal and stone facade crumbled in places. Three victims were rescued from the remaining wreckage of the first floor. One of those victims, the employee of the construction company, lay under a large air conditioning unit that had fallen from the roof, Eatontown Police Capt. George Jackson said. Rescue workers were forced to use the Jaws of Life, a device better known for freeing people from wrecked cars, to extricate the man. All but Rohan, the Petco assistant manager, were rescued from the building within an hour. It would take three hours for an urban search-and-rescue team to find and reach her. Rohan helped them by staying in contact via cell phone. ‘‘She was alive and talking to the rescuers,’’ said Harry Conover, Monmouth County’s director of emergency management. Conover said the workers were forced to dig a trench through the tangle of debris to reach Rohan, whose legs had been badly crushed. Jane Rohan, a sister-in-law of the injured woman, said she had no doubt Jennifer Rohan became trapped as she sought to save animals in the building. ‘‘She loves animals,’’ Jane Rohan said. ‘‘She’s very kindhearted.’’ More than a dozen police departments, fire departments and rescue crews responded to the blast, as did regional search-and-rescue teams led by the State Police and the U.S. Navy. The scene remained busy last night. Workers shored up the building with lumber. Engineers inspected the wreckage, and investigators with both the state and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened independent probes. The explosion did not appear to damage two neighboring buildings, a Macy’s Furniture Gallery and a Fortunoff furniture outlet. Lori Mastrovitch works in a baby clothing outlet not far away. Like others, she felt her building shake, and like others, she had trouble stopping herself from looking at the destruction afterward. ‘‘There’s no rhyme or reason to it,’’ Mastrovitch said. ‘‘It’s just horrible.’’
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Left:photo:
Alexandra Pais/The Home News Tribune
