pro tip: when you smell smoke, don't wait an hour to investigate.

sorry for all these folks displaced.

Jonathan Lin/The Jersey Journal




A two-alarm blaze caused serious damage to a 2.5-story multifamily home on Woodlawn Avenue in Jersey City this morning, but everyone escaped without injury, residents of the building said.

The blaze started at 11 a.m. and was placed under control within an hour. At 12:15, firefighters began to clear the two-family building. The front and insides were visibly charred.
Belinda Ramos, 24, who lives on the second floor of the building with her fianc? and was in the building when the fire began, said she smelled a faint odor of smoke at roughly 10 a.m., but wasn't sure where it was coming from.

"About an hour later, I opened the door and the whole hallway was full of smoke," she said.

Ramos said that the landlord's father -- who she said lives with his son, his daughter-in-law and grandchild on the first floor -- told her she needed to get out of the building and that he had already called 911.

"I don't really know what's going to happen," said Ramos said, looking worried as she called her friend from the sidewalk outside her now-charred home.

The landlord, who declined to give his name, stood across the street in a huddle of neighbors and told The Jersey Journal he was "still processing" what had happened.

Firefighters at the scene declined to provide details about the fire and referred all questions to public safety spokesman Bob McHugh, who did not immediately respond when contacted.