I walked around Red Hook, Brooklyn, with a friend on the afternoon of May 3, 2026. Our walk took us to Red Hook’s Valentino Pier, which has what may be Brooklyn’s best view of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. My friend, who is known in these pages for having rescued a stuffed bird in Williamsburg in the summer of 2025, noticed something peculiar to the northwest of the Statue of Liberty, way off in the distance in New Jersey: An ominous cloud of black smoke. See my photograph from 3:59 PM:
Later on our walk, she searched for news about what we were seeing across the river and found that a fire had started in a mattress factory and spread quickly. I had no doubt that this must have been a big fire based on what we could see from Brooklyn, and the smoke still appeared thick when she pulled up the news story i approximately one hour after I took my photo.
I learned more about the fire the next day. Eric Kiefer for Patch reported that the “massive, 12-alarm fire” had broken out at 3:00 PM on March 3, 2026, in a mattress factory in Belleville, New Jersey. The fire started about 30 minutes before my friend and I noticed the smoke and one hour before I took the above photograph. According to WABC, “[f]irefighters from 40 to 50 departments responded to help Belleville fighters for hours on end as they dealt with low water pressure” and high winds (as if their job was not difficult enough). But there was some good news under these terrible circumstances. Mr. Kiefer noted that there were no civilian injuries, much less deaths, which Belleville Mayor Michael Melham accurately described as “nothing short of a miracle.” WABC noted that one firefighter suffered a minor elbow injury and several others were treated for smoke inhalation, but I dare say that may have been the least bad possible outcome given the scope and intensity of the fire, which what documented in drone photos published by northjersey.com.
It occurred to me while thinking about the story that New York City’s 9/11 Memorial, which memorializes among the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks 343 firefighters who perished in the rescue efforts, had been front-page news just days before the Belleville inferno thanks to the visit of visit of King Charles to pay his respects. Across the river days after the 9/11 Memorial stories, New Jersey firefighters answered the call to corral a massive fire and minimize damage to persons and property to the greatest extent possible. I note additionally that Valentino Pier, from where I took my photo, is named after the late Louis J. Valentino, Jr., who served in the FDNY with distinction from 1984 until February 1996, when he “lost his life while searching for wounded firefighters in a three-alarm blaze in an illegal Flatlands garage.”
From Brooklyn New York, I tip my hat to a job well-done by firefighters from close to 50 departments in New Jersey and hope that the recovery for those who lost homes and businesses in the fire proceeds expeditiously.
