5-Alarm Fire Tears Through Piscataway Pepsi Plant

PISCATAWAY, NJ — There was a massive, five-alarm fire at a PepsiCo. warehouse in Piscataway Tuesday night, according to Township officials.

The fire broke out shortly after 6:30 p.m. at the warehouse on the 2200 block of New Brunswick Avenue. The fire started outside the plant and it specifically originated in an area where a bunch of wooden pallets were being stored, according to Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler.

Exactly what ignited those pallets is unknown at the moment.

"Trust me, we have a lot of eyes looking into what caused this," he said.

Workers were inside the plant when the fire started and they all were evacuated safely. The PepsiCo. warehouse had working sprinklers throughout, but the fire just rapidly swelled in size and strength, said the mayor.

"This is actually PepsiCo's main bottling plant for Mountain Dew and Aquafina water in the New York City tri-state area," said a clearly exhausted Wahler on Wednesday morning. "Hundreds of people work there. So we want to help them get back online and operational as soon as possible."

The warehouse quickly became consumed by the flames, which grew so great that even the New Jersey Forest Fire Service had to be called in. The Forest Fire Service came because embers from the fire briefly ignited a small wooded area near the plant, but that was quickly extinguished.

Two firefighters were injured: One was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital New Brunswick for heat exhaustion and another sustained a minor shoulder injury, he said.

Firefighters poured in from surrounding towns, coming from as far away as Woodridge, Dunellen, East Brunswick, Jamesburg and Monroe Township, he said.

The Middlesex County Hazmat unit also had to be called in. Many surrounding roads in that part of Piscataway, a warehouse/industrial area, were shut down Tuesday night, including New Brunswick Avenue, Carlton Avenue and Lakeview Avenue.

The fire was not completely extinguished until hours later, sometime after 10 p.m., Wahler said.

Here are all the fire companies that responded:

Arbor Hose Company #1, Inc. - The Pride of the North Side, Holmes Marshall Fire Dept., New Market Fire Department, North Stelton Volunteer Fire Company, Possumtown Volunteer Fire Company and River Road Fire Company; fire departments from Colonia, Dunellen, East Brunswick, East Franklin, Jamesburg, Kendall Park, Metuchen, Monroe, Middlesex Boro, North Brunswick, Plainsboro, Sayreville and South Plainfield.

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