Alarms Did Not Go Off In Harmon Cove Tower Fire, Residents Say

SECAUCUS, NJ — On the evening of Monday, April 30, the scene inside Harmon Cove Tower 3 was one of panic and confusion. A fire had broken out at 8:30 p.m. inside a condo on the fourth floor. Smoke and flames could be seen shooting out of the apartment's windows, and multiple people driving past called 911, police said.

The fire rapidly rose to three-alarm status, destroying the unit where it started. Secaucus' all-volunteer fire department was quickly overwhelmed, and had to call in mutual aid from many surrounding towns. Sirens could be heard all over town for hours that night.

But inside Tower 3, a 25-story condominium building that houses hundreds of people, some residents didn't even know their building was on fire. Those that did were unsure whether or not they should evacuate. That's because some of the building's fire alarms failed to go off, and announcements were either not heard or were unclear on the PA system, residents say.

Most significantly, the fire alarms failed to go off on the fourth floor where the fire started. That prevented the fire doors on each floor from closing, and enabled smoke to travel up the entire length of the tower, explained Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli, who is also a firefighter. Several top floors were filled with smoke, residents said.

"The alarm in my apartment did go off eventually, at least ten minutes after smoke was visible from my balcony and I knew something was on fire," said one Tower 3 resident, who did not want Patch to use her name.

But still, she said she never heard any announcement on the PA system, telling her whether to evacuate or not.

She said it wasn't until Secaucus police officers ran up and down the halls, pounding on doors and telling people to get out, that she knew to evacuate. She opened her door to find her hallway filled with smoke.

"I grabbed the dog and my purse," she said. "By that point, you could smell the smoke in my apartment, and when I opened the door to the hallway, it was filled with smoke. It was difficult to see and breathe."

She said she spoke to two of her neighbors, and that the alarms did not go off in their apartments, either. The residents only knew to escape when someone pounded on their door; at one of the units, firefighters just broke down the door in a desperate attempt to get people out of the building.

According to Gonnelli, it was firefighters who manually triggered the alarm once they got to the scene, ensuring that all alarms would go off on all floors.

"If the smoke alarm goes off on the fourth floor, the fire doors close on all the floors. But that failed to happen," said Gonnelli. "Also, when the fire department got there, the key to manually override the elevators was nowhere to be found."

"It's really a good thing nobody was injured in that fire," he added.

Fire alarms did go off on some floors

Jennifer Alexander, an attorney who represents the elected board members of the Harmon Cove Towers Association, confirmed to Patch that the smoke alarms did not go off on the floor where the fire started. She said it's possibly because there was not enough smoke to trigger it.

"The smoke alarm did not go off automatically on the floor where the fire occurred," she said. "The smoke alarm is only triggered when it detects certain amounts of smoke in the air, and there’s evidence to suggest that at the time the alarm was manually triggered on that floor, the smoke had not reached the wall-mounted smoke detector in the common hallways."

Alarms did go off on other floors, she said, which other Tower residents confirmed. For example, Catalina Carvajal, who lives on the ninth floor of Tower 3, said that the fire alarm in her hallway went off and the alarm in her condo went off at about 8:15 p.m. that night.

But once the alarms went off, residents were still unsure what that meant: Should they evacuate? Should they stay in their units?

"The whole building was just not prepared for what do in the event of a fire. There was no procedure," said another Tower 3 resident. He too wanted to stay anonymous. "Some residents were told to stay in their apartments, others were told to evacuate. I was in my unit and I looked out the balcony to see the fire. The cops were down there and they shouted at me, 'Are you crazy! Come down now!"

Alexander pointed out that Harmon Cove Towers was designed to be "fire-proof," meaning that fires are likely to be contained in the unit in which they start. Residents are instructed to stay in their units unless specifically told to evacuate.

"If you live in a non-combustible building and the fire is not in your unit, you are instructed to remain in your unit, if possible," she said. "The residents who did not attempt to evacuate until instructed by the police or the fire department did exactly what the Secaucus Fire Department instructs us to do in such situations."

The problem is that clear instructions were not given over the PA system.

Alexander said the PA system was working, and that at least two announcements went out.

"Once I safely got out, I got a call from a friend who live on the sixteenth floor," said one condo owner. "The man has two little children. He called me and said, 'What do I do now? Should I evacuate?' I asked the firefighters to make a special trip up to the sixteenth floor and get them."

The man, his wife and children safely got out.

Fire drills are needed at Harmon Cove Towers, one condo owner says

Many condo owners who spoke to Patch emphasized that Harmon Cove Towers is a wonderful place to live. The three-building complex has a pool, a sauna, an exercise room, tennis courts and a children's play area. It overlooks the Hackensack River and the Meadowlands. It's a speedy commute into Manhattan, where many of the towers' residents work.

But those same residents also say the building management simply is not prepared for the worst.

"Look, I love living in Harmon Cove and I love living in Secaucus," said Dan Ladner, a Tower 3 condo owner and former board member. He was not home the night of the fire, but heard about it from his neighbors.

Ladner, 45, is also a 9/11 survivor. He was working for Morgan Stanley on the 73rd floor of World Trade Center Tower 2 when the planes hit. He said he will never forget having to run down seventy three flights of stairs. One person he worked with on that floor did not make it out. In fact, when Ladner was on the Harmon Cove Tower board, he pushed for the complex to have fire and evacuation drills.

His suggestions went unheeded, he said.

"I was never in the majority of the board, I was always in the minority," said Ladner. "To me, you have to think the unthinkable will happen. The whole point of a drill is to see the weak links, find out what you need to work on and identify the units that need extra help."

Ladner owns a condo on the 12th floor.

"I still think Harmon Cove Towers is a great place to live, but I hope this will be a wake-up call. We were very lucky no one got hurt that night," he said. "I hope now they'll take more proactive measures."

While fire drills have never been held, the condo board has held many fire safety seminars, Alexander said, including one as recently as January 17 of this year.

"Unfortunately even though advance notice is given, these seminars are not well attended by the owners and residents," she said. "The Association also distributes fire safety tips issued by the Secaucus Fire Department specifically for our building. Furthermore, the fire safety information is provided in the welcome packet to all new owners and residents."

Nobody was injured in the April 30 fire. It was put out relatively quickly by the Secaucus fire department and surrounding towns. But what about the next fire?

"The Board will be reviewing the fire safety procedures, and intends on retaining an independent high-rise fire safety consulting firm to determine if any updates or improvements are appropriate," said Alexander. Also, even thought it's not required, the Board is also installing additional fire alarms that will be connected to centralized smoke detectors, she added.

The towers will also be having a fire safety drill sometime in June, said Mayor Gonnelli.

Top photo by Carly Baldwin/Secaucus Patch