http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2015/06/fire_escape_steps_snap_as_resident_flee_2-alarm_je.html
JERSEY CITY -- The steps on a rusted fire escape gave way beneath the feet of residents fleeing a two-alarm fire in a four-story apartment this morning in the Greenville section of the city.
"I fell right through the stairs," said J.R. Williams, who lives on the third floor of the building at Bayside Park Drive and Bayside Terrace and fell one story through the fire escape steps.
"I didn't know what to think. I was just trying to get out," Williams said when asked whether he thought he would fall three stories to the ground.
Like others who used that fire escape during the fire, which began around 5:20 a.m., Williams said he had to break down an access door because the sliding bolts locking it had been painted over several times and appeared to be locked in place. Williams suffered scrapes and bruises in the fall.
"Every step I took, the step collapsed," Anthony Floyd said of his escape from the building. "I was falling and sliding. Me and my wife are lucky to be alive."
Speaking of the fire escape, Severo K. Gerena said: "I've been here a year and I've seen maybe two inspections and this should not have passed."
However, the building was last inspected in 2012 and was on the rotation for future inspection, Jersey City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said.
A message left with the building's management company was not immediately returned.
Juan Cid, who lives with his wife Elise Belicaire and their 3-year-old daughter in a first floor apartment, said the the fire started in his kitchen.
"She woke me up and said, 'Honey, something smells of smoke,'" Cid said. "I opened the bedroom door and I saw smoke along the ceiling. I put my head inside the kitchen and everything was on fire. It was coming from between the stove and the wall ... I said, 'Honey, take the baby, the kitchen is on fire.'"
Cid said the smoke detector alarms had not sounded so he ran out of the apartment, pulled the manual alarm and began banging on apartment doors to warn people.
Firefighters responding to the 5:21 a.m. alarm found the fire in Cid's apartment. It spread to an adjacent apartment before being declared under control at 6:01 a.m. Residents of both apartments will not be able to return due to fire damage, Jersey City Department spokeswoman Carly Baldwin said at the scene.
Residents in eight additional apartments will also be evacuated because of the lack of a second means of egress due to "the rotting fire escape," Baldwin said.
Kenichi Suginasa, who lives in the apartment below Cid's, said he has always had problems with water leaks but when firefighters began pumping water on the flames a floor above "it was like a monsoon in my apartment. Like it was raining," he said.
Suginasa said he thought a water pipe had burst. He turned off his circuit breaker and decided to look for the building's super.
"I opened my door and there was a wall of smoke," said Suginasa.
The American Red Cross said it is assisting nine families and 21 people with temporary lodging and food and clothing assistance as needed, said Diane Concannon.
Morrill added that any resident who has concerns about a fire escape or wants to report a faulty fire escape, and their landlord is not responsive, can do so by contacting the Resident Response Center at 201-547-4900.
