December 2002 - January 2003 Edition

Thirty Businesses   All thirty businesses in the Plaza Building  suffered destruction or significant damage.   Paul Pintel's accounting office was above Columbia Bank for thirty years. He was at his Garwood Road home when the fire started at 5:10 PM on October 1st. His neighbors told him that there was a fire at the Plaza Building. Pintel got to the fire as fast as he could. He said "it was just an unbelievable scene. People coming from all over, volunteers from all towns. It was just heartbreaking".   Pintel is renting new office space on River Road now.  He feels that he was fortunate because he had been phasing out of his business and not accepting any new clients. He feels bad for others, though, "like Strehl's Pharmacy that had been around for an eternity".    Pintel did not have any computer backups that he could access. Neither did he have fire insurance.  "Who figured there would be a fire of that magnitude? At least I didn't pay premiums for thirty years".   List of Businesses Destroyed and Damaged 1st Floor Destroyed Columbia Savings Banks Piccola Italia  Rafie Bolloutina, Barber Shop  Russian Delight 1st Floor Damaged Fair Lawn Tae Kwon Do  Radburn Deli & Liquor  Strehl's Pharmacy 2nd Floor Destroyed Asghar & Nazma Hossain BCTEM Local #719 Dmitry Primak, MD Ira Pintel, Attorney Paul Pintel, CPA Ives Group, Architecture  Jimps Funding, LLC  Joseph Traverso, MD NJ Center for Modern Psychoanalysis Norman Blum Rudnick Insurance   2nd and 3rd Floor Damaged Azorean Group, Financial  Barbara Powers, MSW/BCD  Braff Communications  Daniel Goldfarb, MSW  Filimonova & Poley, Lawyers  Happy World Travel  Harold Hoffman  HomeAid Resources  Jack Ballan, Esq.  Latousse Travel Services  Robert Rudnick, Psychologist  Technical Industries   Photo taken by former Mayor Bob Gordon.