Squatters were living in Irvington, N.J. building before fire, displaced residents say
IRVINGTON, N.J. — Investigators still don't know what caused a vacant building in Irvington to go up in flames Tuesday. The fire spread to four other homes, displacing 30 residents.
Nothing is left of the vacant structure that went up in flames. The other homes on Montgomery Avenue are either charred to damaged. The fire was so fierce, firefighters from neighboring Newark had to provide mutual aid, preventing the flames from taking the entire block.
"I ran out. I was shouting on the road, 'Fire, fire, everybody get out, get out,'" Ayzo Akia said.
Akia escaped with just the clothes she was wearing.
Desperate residents came back to salvage what they could of their belongings Wednesday.
"Come back to get food for my kids and milk and clothes," Nerlandi Jean said. "My baby cried all night. I didn't sleep."
"I am lucky to get my documents, though wet, but I got my document," Kolawole Imoudu said.
"Everything is gone," Akia said.
Irvington officials say they never received squatter complaints
Both Newark and Irvington fire, including arson units, will be investigating to determine the exact cause of the fire.
Several neighbors tell CBS News New York the vacant property was plagued with squatters.
"This area has a lot of squatters. They are always going all up into the house ... They used to go in there, sleep in there," said one man who did not want to be identified.
"In the night, many peoples coming. They stay inside. Sometimes the people, they put fire inside," Jose Huerta said.
Huerta claims he complained to Irvington officials, texting an engineer named William.
"The city never did nothing," Huerta said.
But Irvington's business administrator tells CBS News New York the township has not received any complaints, going back several years, and that no one by that name works as an engineer.
A police report shows service calls to the vacant home over the years, the administrator says by its legal occupants, not for squatters.
