Massive blaze rips through five buildings in New Jersey

A massive six-alarm fire erupted in New Jersey Sunday night, burning through at least five buildings as it raged through the night. 

The fire broke out around 8pm in an unoccupied five-floor apartment complex that was under construction in Bound Brook on East Main Street near Mountain Avenue, fire officials said.

The building was quickly engulfed in the inferno and flames, likely fueled by wind, then leaped across the street to set another under-construction complex, two nearby houses and an electronics store on fire, according to NJ.com.

Harrowing video and photos from the scene show the roaring orange flames rip through the buildings and firefighters on the scene tackling the blaze past 11pm. Firefighters said they had the blaze under control late Sunday. 

There are no known injuries at this time but more 100 residents were forced to evacuate the area. 

The fire broke out around 8pm in an under-construction complex called Meridia Downtown, a five-floor building that was unoccupied at the time. The flames then leaped across the street and set another under-construction complex on fire as well as two nearby houses and an electronics store on fire

An aerial view of firefighters trying to douse the blaze pictured above 

Harrowing video and photos from the scene show the roaring flames rip through five buildings and firefighters on the scene tackling the blaze past 11pm

More than 100 people gathered to watch firefighters work well into the night to contain the blaze

‘The whole thing caught flame quickly,’ Bound Brook Police Chief Vito Bet said, adding the blaze ‘was so hot it blew to the other new building under construction across the street. We’re gonna be out here for awhile. It keeps rekindling.’  

‘This is a disastrous fire that is very difficult to contain and has the potential to spread to all nearby structures,’ the Bound Brook Police Department initially said on Facebook. 

The building where the blaze first ignited was known as Meridia Downtown and included 174 apartments plus retail space located in the downtown commercial district, according to Bound Brook Councilman Abel Gomez. 

The flames jumped across the Main Street to a second apartment complex that was also under construction, which consisted of 60 residential units and a restaurant. 

Around 3,000 people, about half the town, were left without power late Sunday as firefighters braved the flames. 

Due to the fire the NJ Transit suspended the Raritan Valley Line between Bridgewater and Dunellen in both directors. 

‘It’s bad here,’Captain Kevin Rivenbark said, noting that the cause of the fire has not been determined. 

Twitter users shared their view of the Bound Brook blaze showing plumes of orange smoke rising into the night sky

The massive blaze quickly spread evacuating more than 100 residents in the area, but no injuries were reported

Police issued this warning of the fire Sunday evening

On Sunday evening around 100 people gathered to watch the fire roar and plumes of glowing orange smoke rise into the sky. 

‘The apartment building was nothing but 100 units of framing. What these fire crews have done is pretty remarkable. I’m very much relieved. It could have very easily spread,’ Buck Clarke, who owns a distillery that will open behind one of the burning apartments, said. 

The buildings under construction were a part of the borough’s downtown redevelopment zone after the area was hit hard by flooding over the past two decades. 

‘Bound Brook was in the process of a renaissance. After all the floods we’ve had here, and now we have this fire,’ Councilman Gomez said sorrowfully.