February 14
...serving up your daily dish.
Bad news for the owners of Le Carousel, the wine-bar, restaurant and nightclub that opened last fall, which caught on fire this morning -- just hours before one of the busiest nights in a restaurant's calendar. Tipsters let us know about the fire (thank you), and a fire official on the scene told us that a patrolman spotted the blaze around 6:30 am and called it in. The three-alarm fire was put out within a matter of minutes. Le Carousel, whose first floor is badly damaged, is located across the street from Whole Foods.
The presence of fire trucks at the Brookdale Shoprite yesterday, meanwhile, backed up traffic on Bellevue Avenue all the way up to the entrance of Brookdale Park. Employees told us that a fire alarm summoned the trucks, but there was no fire -- and grocery shopping continued uninterrupted.
There have been a few fires in Montclair recently. Yet all around Montclair, fire hydrants are covered with snow. People are ignoring the item that could be essential in saving property and lives. If there's a hydrant near your house, please clear the snow from it. If your house or your neighbor's house is on fire, do you really want firefighters spending time searching for the buried hydrant?
Posted by: Bob Mellman | Feb 14, 2006 10:11:49 AM
That's a shame that such a new business is crippled this way. BTW-We saw the Bloomfield Fire Dept. on Sunday clearing hydrants in our neighborhood.
Posted by: Krys O. | Feb 14, 2006 10:58:04 AM
Huh, I drove by there on my way to work about 6:10 and didn't see anything.
Posted by: max | Feb 14, 2006 12:18:03 PM
I was on the 29 bus at about 7:15AM or so and the bus had to detour onto Park Street because of the activity.
Posted by: Krys O. | Feb 14, 2006 12:30:09 PM
Doesn't it seem suspicious that within a short period of time, two restaurants in Montclair have had fires in the wee hours of the morning - when no one's there? The first, at the train station, happened around 1:30 in the morning - and now this one around 630am. Wouldn't you expect a restaurant fire to happen when there are people cooking, using fire, slinging hot grease, etc.? Is the fire department even considering that one or both of these fires might have been set?
Posted by: Steve F. | Feb 14, 2006 3:42:50 PM
Yeah, I was supposed to have 28 people at LeCarousel this Saturday for a surprise party for my wife for her 30th b-day. Just my luck the place would almost burn down!
Posted by: paul | Feb 14, 2006 4:12:45 PM
Bloomfield Firefighters always shovel out the hydrants, Its part of our job
Posted by: steve | Feb 14, 2006 8:52:59 PM
Steve, thanks to you and the rest of the Bloomfield Fire Dept. for doing such a great job. My boyfriend and I were really impressed when we saw the firemen addressing such an important issue.
Posted by: Krys | Feb 14, 2006 10:10:35 PM
I was told that someone waiting for the bus at the stop just up the hill called it in. There may have been multiple calls of course.
I was also told that the fire was only minutes from being much, much worse, potentially destroying the whole building. Here's another salute to firefighters for doing a tough & risky job so well.
Posted by: crank | Feb 15, 2006 9:21:34 AM
>> Doesn't it seem suspicious that within a short period of time, two restaurants in Montclair have had fires in the wee hours of the morning - when no one's there? The first, at the train station, happened around 1:30 in the morning - and now this one around 630am. Wouldn't you expect a restaurant fire to happen when there are people cooking, using fire, slinging hot grease, etc.? Is the fire department even considering that one or both of these fires might have been set? <<
The Carousel fire started when a faulty electric space heater shorted out. This one wasn't set. I have no info on the other one.
Posted by: crank | Feb 15, 2006 8:20:52 PM
