Fire Breaks Out As Workers Demolish Former Sony Building In Park Ridge

The fire spread from one of three rooftop mechanical pods to the floor below in the four-story building, which a demolition crew is tearing down to make way for hundreds of new apartments on the 30-acre former electronic giant's campus just off the Garden State Parkway.

A worker whom Park Ridge Fire Chief Thomas Lepore spotted on the roof after arriving at the 1:45 p.m. blaze "made his way through an unaffected area of the building and was located safely outside," the department said.

"All the other workers had safely exited the building," Lepore said.

Firefighters stretched hose lines to the third-floor utility room and extinguished the blaze, the chief said, adding that crews "conducted extensive overhaul operations and checked the numerous void spaces on the fire floor" for flame pockets.

“Once again the prompt response of our volunteer firefighters and our mutual aid partners brought this difficult fire under control quickly," Lepore said.

"The firefighters on scene were faced with numerous hazards in this building, which is in the early stages of the demolition process," the chief noted. "The windy conditions [also] made the fire intensify quickly.

"After a brief, initial exterior attack, firefighters aggressively entered the building and advanced to the seat of the fire on the third floor,"  Lepore said. "Thankfully, no one was seriously injured."

Mutual aid responders either at the scene or in coverage included firefighters from Hillsdale, Woodcliff Lake, Montvale, Westwood, River Vale, Ridgewood, Old Tappan Saddle River and Pearl River.

The Bergen County Arson Investigations Unit was summoned to help pinpoint the origin and cause of the blaze.

Borough police and a borough building inspector also responded, as did the Tri-Boro Volunteer Ambulance Corps EMS and Oradell Emergency Management, among others.

Sony moved its North American electronics division HQ to San Diego in 2004 but maintained space for various operations at the 220,887-square-foot Park Ridge building -- built in 1982 -- before selling to Paramus-based Hornrock Properties in 2015 for a reported $16.8 million.

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