ELIZABETH, N.J. — Over 100 firefighters battled a blaze Friday at a New Jersey industrial park that was home to the Singer Sewing Machine factory for more than a century.
A passerby reported the fire around 5:30 a.m., Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said.
No one was in the building and no injuries were reported, he said.
Two roofs and one wall collapsed, but the fire was burning in several buildings closest to the waterfront, away from the oldest historical portion of the building, Bollwage said.
“The iconic portion of the building is not threatened, nor do we expect it to be,” the mayor said.
Prevailing winds were helping by blowing flames away from the rest of the complex, he added.
More than 100 firefighters were on the scene of the four-alarm fire, a classification requiring one of the highest levels of response in the city, officials said. Mutual aid assistance was being given by numerous area fire departments, and New York City lent firefighting boats to help battle the blaze.
Smoke rises south of the New York borough of Manhattan as a warehouse burns in Elizabeth, N.J., spreading smoke over the southern skyline of New York Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. Credit: AP/Craig Ruttle
Video from the scene shows a building engulfed in flames with firefighters surrounding the structure. The large industrial complex is just south of Newark Liberty International Airport and across a strait from the New York City borough of Staten Island. A huge plume of smoke could be seen from Manhattan.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, and the blaze itself could take several days to extinguish, Bollwage said.
In 1873 the Singer Sewing Machine Manufacturing Company purchased 32 acres at the site, and established the factory where it would make the iconic machines for more than a century. It was the largest workforce plant in the world for a single establishment at the time.
Located on Elizabeth’s waterfront near Newark Bay, the Singer factory was a powerhouse of the Industrial…
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