Edgewater wants law to prevent fires like Avalon

EDGEWATER — Three years after a fire destroyed the Avalon at Edgewater, the borough is pushing for the state to finally pass legislation to make buildings safer.

The council unanimously passed a resolution this week in support of Assembly Bill 135 and Senate Bill 1261, which amend the fire safety regulations in the state's construction code — bills that were held over because they were not passed into law last year.

"I'm trying to get any type of action, any type of traction that we can get. We're not going to stop until something is done," Mayor Michael McPartland said. "I don't want to see someone get killed before we get something done. That shouldn't be what it takes."

Last year's bills were stalled as activists argued for them to go further, while builders and apartment associations argued the measures were too restrictive and detrimental to constructing affordable housing.

The new bills, which were introduced in January and are in committee, call for sprinkler systems that cover not only the rooms and hallways, but between the floors and the walls, McPartland said.

The bills also require using noncombustible building materials and installing a firewall that reaches from the foundation of the building to the roof.

McPartland said Avalon already decided to use these systems and materials in the building that will replace the burned-down complex, adding he considers it common sense.

"Those things should stop something like that from happening again," he said. "If Avalon has done these things in the new building, there's no reason it shouldn't be passed as law."

A representative of the New Jersey Builders Association said the association's position hasn't changed since the previous iteration of the bill, and it still prefers that the code be updated through the national code development process.

"New Jersey’s building codes are based on national model codes that are similarly utilized by most other states," Association President John Krikenir said in a statement. "We believe we should continue to defer to these well-established processes where the code decisions remain with the technical experts."

David Brogan of New Jersey Apartment Association said using only non-combustible materials in construction instead of wood, as the bills propose, would raise costs by 30 percent, which he said would be "devastating" to affordable housing.

"We look forward to working with the Legislature on the solution, but mandating building materials, we think, is something that would be devastating to multi-family construction in the state," he said.

McPartland said another point of contention was how large a building had to be to be subject to the regulations.

The 2015 fire was the second time the complex burned down; the first was during construction in 2000. McPartland said it was very lucky that nobody was injured or killed, thanks in part to the second blaze happening in the afternoon while many were at work.

"The third time cannot be the charm," he said. "If that had happened in the middle of the night, or early in the morning, the street would have been lined with body bags."

The Assembly bill is sponsored by Rep. Wayne DeAngelo and Rep. Annette Quijano and the Senate bill is sponsored by Sen. Brian Stack. McPartland said he hopes the state Legislature can get them passed in the first legislative session of this year.

The legislation comes in the wake of not only the Edgewater fire, but also a fire that destroyed another Avalon apartment complex in Maplewood last year.

The former tenants of the Avalon complex filed a lawsuit last year against the building's owners, alleging that negligence led to the five-alarm blaze. The lawsuit went to trial in January.