Still a burning question - City Hall fire remains unsolved after 30 years

by Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter Staff Writer


City Hall in Jersey City was damaged by fire on Sept. 12, 1979.

This much is known about the afternoon fire that destroyed the top floor of Jersey City?s City Hall on Sept. 12, 1979 ? the cause remains a mystery.

What is known from newspaper accounts of the four-alarm fire was that it started in the attic around 2 p.m. that Wednesday afternoon, and by 2:55 p.m. had progressed to the extent that 100 firefighters had to battle the blaze to get it under control around 4 p.m.

The roof of the north section of the circa-1897 brick building at 280 Grove St. was completely destroyed along with two decorative copper cupolas that had graced the roof. The stained glass skylight rotunda window shattered, the attic and the third floor charred and gutted, and water damage throughout the rest of the building.

Records in the Personnel Department and the Building Department, which were both located on the third floor, were destroyed. Many offices had to be relocated to other locations across the city, with some never returning to City Hall to this day. Also, only one of the two city elevators has worked since the fire.

Then-Mayor Thomas F.X. Smith would remark to the Daily News upon surveying the burned-out ruins while wearing a fireman?s helmet that ?It breaks my heart to look at this.?
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?That?s not something you forget so easily.? ? Fred Tompkins
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It would also break the bank for the city, with an estimated $2 million to deal with the fiery destruction; with millions more spent in the next five years to build new offices on the third floor, and within 20 years an entirely new roof.

Ironically, City Hall at the time of the fire had been undergoing an extensive interior renovation, which some city officials believe may have had a hand in starting the blaze. Construction workers, like much of the City Hall staff, used the roof for smoking while paints and varnish were being used in the attic just below.

Yet Fred Tompkins, then the city?s Director of Finance, says all these years later, there was no way to point blame.

?There was an investigation, but the area was burned so badly there was no way to prove what really happened,? said Tompkins, who now works for a Bayonne accounting firm and still does annual financial audits for Jersey City.

Still flickers in their memories

Tompkins was walking to his office on the first floor when he heard the stained glass skylight explode and crash down behind him.

?I just missed being underneath it by seconds,? Tompkins said. ?That?s not something you forget so easily.?

Joanne Monahan was a young law clerk immersed in her legal work in a back office of the Law Department on the third floor. Monahan still works for the city?s Law Department.

?One of the investigators came around and told me to get out, but I ignored him because I didn?t believe there was a fire,? Monahan said. ?Then investigators came around again and then when I saw the glass from the skylight, my legs went to complete rubber, and I knew we had to get out.?

Gerald McCann ? before he became mayor and did a stint in federal prison ? was a 29-year-old City Councilman who was in the city?s Heights section when he got the phone call that City Hall was on fire.

When he got into the building, he noticed something darkly humorous from one of the firefighters.

?I see him on the roof with a fire hose and he had a cigarette in his mouth,? McCann said. ?I knew a lot of firemen smoked, but I thought it was funny seeing firefighters fighting fires while they are smoking.?

McCann also noticed that water from the hoses was pouring down into the building. That?s when he rushed into the City Clerk?s Office and started passing boxes with valuable records out the window as well as making sure other records inside various offices were protected as well.

Leon Yost had recently moved with his wife into their York Street brownstone, only two blocks from City Hall. Yost came home from his Manhattan job after the fire had been put out.

?Quite a shock to see City Hall in the aftermath, like a skeleton,? said Yost, a longtime historic photographer who organized a current photo and image exhibit of City Hall that is located in the first floor lobby. ?I?m still surprised there is a large absence of [information about] what caused the fire.?

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.