A devastating fire has left the Fair Lawn (Bergen County, N.J.) Jewish community shell-shocked and wondering about the future of several local kosher businesses.
Shortly after 2:00 a.m. on Friday morning, July 26, the overnight crew at Zadies Kosher Bake Shop felt an unusual amount of heat and smelled smoke. Upon exiting the building into the rear parking lot, they saw smoke coming from the rear of Green Dragon Asian Cuisine, a non-kosher restaurant at the far end of the shopping center. They quickly called 911.
“The Fair Lawn Fire Department was dispatched to a report of a structure fire with flames coming from the rear of the Green Dragon Restaurant located on the 19 block of Fair Lawn Ave at 2:27 a.m.,” the department wrote in a statement posted to Facebook. “Upon arrival, heavy smoke and fire was found coming from the rear of the building. Fair Lawn Assistant Fire Chief Ralph Rinaldo quickly transmitted a working fire assignment and also called for a second alarm.”
“When we first pulled up, there were flames coming out of the roof, it seems it was by the kitchen area, but that’s for the prosecutors to determine,” said Rinaldo about the scene. “We initially sent in an engine crew through the rear of the building to try to get a handle on it. Unfortunately, the fire quickly spread, compromising the roof. In the interest of safety, we opted to fight the fire from the exterior using aerial ladders. There was heavy air-handling equipment on the roof of the building. The roof collapsed shortly thereafter.”
“Thankfully by that point everyone was out of the building,” Rinaldo said, echoing the sentiments of many regarding the blaze. “In addition, the fire got into the common cockloft of the building and spread horizontally to the other businesses in the complex.”
What started at Green Dragon Asian Cuisine spread quickly to Flynn’s Barbershop, Fair Lawn Roadhouse (a kosher restaurant and take-out spot that is also home to Mashu Mashu Kosher Sushi Bar), the triple-wide storefront of Zadies Kosher Bake Shop (the famous bakery whose goods can be found in stores far and wide), and Dream on Lash (a beauty salon). The firefighters were able to halt the fire before it reached the last store, Regency Cleaners (a dry cleaner).
According to Doug Sadowski, public information officer for the Fair Lawn Fire Department, there were no injuries to any of the more than 50 firefighters that were needed to extinguish the flames. It took roughly 90 minutes until the fire stopped progressing and another 30 until they were out completely.
Mutual aid was provided by the fire departments of Elmwood Park, Glen Rock, Hawthorne, Paramus, Paterson, Saddle Brook, and Wyckoff. Emergency units also responded from Fair Lawn Police, Fair Lawn Rescue Squad, Fair Lawn Office of Emergency Management, and the Fair Lawn Volunteer Ambulance Corp.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known and is still under investigation by the Fair Lawn Fire Prevention Bureau.
An immediate outpouring of support was received by the businesses from many sources.
“We are so saddened to hear about the devastating fire in Fair Lawn that caused enormous damage to Zadies Kosher Bake Shop as well as the other stores in the shopping center,” wrote The Jewish Federation of North Jersey in an online statement. “We are grateful that no one was injured. Zadies is beloved by our community and until they reopen, we will all miss their challah, babka, meltaways, and so much more.”
Those in Fair Lawn were already trying to think about what the business owners needed.
“I was devastated to learn about the fire this morning that has severely damaged some of our most treasured local businesses,” said Fair Lawn Mayor Gail Friedberg Rottenstrich on Friday. “The Fair Lawn Borough and community are ready to support the businesses in any way necessary.”
Local congressman (and occasional customer of Zadies), Representative Josh Gottheimer said, “I was so sorry to wake up to this devastating news. I’m grateful to our first responders for their bravery and thinking about our small business owners and employees.”
Shortly after stopping by the shopping center early Friday afternoon to see the damage for himself, Gottheimer said, “It’s heartbreaking. I mean, not just for the business owners but for the entire community.”
After the businesses deal with their insurance companies, Gottheimer said his office will do all it can to help the businesses relocate.
This is not the first time that Zadies has dealt with an interruption in their business. This past July 11th marked the five-year anniversary of the day that a car drove through the front of bakery. That incident caused a closure that lasted three months.
“I’m upset that our employees don’t have jobs right now,” said Josh Steinberg, whose family owns Zaides. “I felt helpless watching it happen, but Zadies will be back, bigger and better than before.”
Though Zadies had been there for 19 years, Roadhouse and Mashu Mashu were newer additions.
Exactly five months from the first day of their soft opening, Fair Lawn Roadhouse was planning an official grand opening and ribbon-cutting in the coming weeks. They had brought Mashu Mashu Kosher Sushi Bar in from a previous location. The sushi counter was open for just 11 weeks before the fire.
“When I first heard the news, I said ‘baruch Hashem’ that nobody was hurt,” said Nisan Shavit, owner of Mashu Mashu. “When I came to see the damage, I said ‘baruch Dayan HaEmet’ because everything comes from Hashem and is meant to be. And I know Mashu Mashu will be back in some form in the future.”
Moshe Berow, owner of Fair Lawn Roadhouse, is also looking toward the future.
“What’s next? We will just have to wait and see what options are out there,” Berow said. “We are focused on recapturing the momentum we had just started to gain and moving forward.”
Late on Friday afternoon, Berow was told that the building was to be boarded up and condemned as soon as Saturday. If that were to happen, he might not ever get access to the inside of the restaurant ever again before the building was torn down and destroyed.
While some of that information eventually proved to be untrue, Berow had very little time before Shabbat and almost no choice of what to do. He had to try and get anything of value out of the building that he could. Though that sounds fairly simple, it would be easier said than done. Much of the equipment he wanted to save was quite heavy. And even if he had the necessary power to get it out the door, where would it go? And how would he get it there?
At 6:21 p.m. Berow put out the call on two local WhatsApp chats. With his own shul (Congregation Darchei Noam) having their early Shabbat minyan at 6:35 p.m., Berow wondered how much help he would be able to find.
“In truth, I didn’t expect anyone to come,” Berow said in a letter than he wrote to the community on Saturday night. “It was nearly candle lighting time for early Shabbat, and everyone has their own last minute insanity.”
“Several people showed up, I set about trying to give direction on what was most important, and got back to work myself,” said Berow about the beginning of the relief effort. “Sometime later, maybe around 7 p.m., I walked outside carrying something to discover that nearly 60 of my friends and neighbors had shown up and were busy getting things done!”
Most of the damage to the building was in the front because of where the fire had spread. That meant that the back entrance and kitchen were largely salvageable, assuming you had enough people to help move some really heavy equipment. Another factor was the fact that power had been cut to the building. The kitchen was therefore completely dark and trying to move through debris with flashlights was not the easiest task.
But where there is a will, there is a way. The group was able to accomplish a great deal in a very limited amount of time and as people showed up with every minivan, SUV, or pick-up truck they could find, the stuff started to get loaded into everyone’s personal vehicles with a rented U-Haul trailer mixed in for some of the really large items.
As Shabbat neared and the job was done, Berow could not fathom the sense of community that he felt.
“I’ve rarely felt as much love and connection as I did from those embraces I got late erev Shabbat from dozens of people I am privileged to call friends,” Berow said about the Fair Lawn community.
But it wasn’t just Berow who received help. With that many people around, there were hands to spare. Dina Margelovich had showed up to assist Berow, but she enlisted the help of a group of people in rescuing items from Flynn’s Barbershop, the space directly next door to Roadhouse.
Jess Flynn and her husband Shae built the barbershop during Covid while she was pregnant with their son. They built a nursery in the back of the shop because both of them worked there and it made things easier for their family. The barbershop was truly like a second home for them.
Not only were the volunteers able to rescue five very expensive and heavy barber chairs, but they also helped Flynn clear sentimental items out of the nursery. When she didn’t have a way to move the chairs or a place to put them in the interim, somebody volunteered their garage and they loaded up the stuff.
“It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” said Flynn about the kiddush Hashem. “Within 20 minutes they got all the chairs loaded up because they were going to close the gates to the property.
“I literally could not believe it. I was in awe. Nobody knew us or had to help us. But the fact that (Berow) could send a message and get that kind of help was incredible. I’m so thankful they were there for me and my family.”
Margelovich thought that what she and others did was the obvious thing to do.
“Being part of a community means that you celebrate the good times and you’re together in the bad times,” she said about the events of Friday afternoon. “There’s a time to give and there’s a time to take. And this was a time when people needed help.”
Hopefully, the equipment the group salvaged from Roadhouse will be a great help in that effort. Because of the late hour, almost everything from Roadhouse spent all of Shabbat, Saturday night, and Sunday morning in people’s cars and vans. Berow was able to rent a storage unit to house everything on Sunday afternoon. At that point, a call went out for people to help unload stuff at the storage unit.
To nobody’s surprise, Berow wasn’t short on volunteers.
