'It's like the whole community': Residents mourn after NJ strip mall fire

FAIR LAWN, N.J. (PIX11) -- A fire in Fair Lawn was so big that it took firefighters from six different communities to put it out. Now, a half-dozen businesses are a total loss, financially, from the overnight blaze, and their loss is also being felt emotionally in this community, which views the strip mall as a kind of town center. 

The loss was evident on the faces of the many different people who came to the site on Fair Lawn Avenue at Chandler Drive on Friday. Business owners and community members alike were in tears. 

"I was hoping it would not be as bad as it is," said Jess Flynn, the co-owner of Flynns' Barbershop, one of the businesses in the line of shops, as she choked back tears. "It's really, really devastating." 

One of her customers, Stella Lemberg, is also the president of the local Chamber of Commerce. She said that she cried upon seeing the burnt out strip mall in person. 

"These stores, what they represent in town," Lemberg said, "they're cornerstone shops."

Lisa De Stefano, like Lemberg, is a customer as well as a friend of the barbershop owners. 

"Right here, it's like the whole community," De Stefano said. "Everybody went to Flynns' Barbershop. My husband, Gary, was supposed to get his hair cut today," she continued. "That ain't happening."

Jess Flynn and her husband, Shea, owned Flynns' Barbershop. They said that they'd just been notified this week that they'd won the designation Best In Bergen County for barbershops. 

They'd also received a notification overnight that was a reminder of how connected to the community their business is. Firefighters who'd worked to knock down the blaze contacted the Flynns overnight -- they're devoted customers.

"The pictures and videos kept coming in from the firemen who come in and get their hair cut," Shea Flynn said, his eyes brimming with tears. "It was very tough to absorb it and realize the damage that has happened." 

Three doors down from his barbershop is Zadie's Bake Shop, a popular local business known for its challah loaves and dessert treats, which are also sold in area grocery stores. 

The co-owner of Zadie's, Josh Steinberg, said that just after 2:30 a.m. on Friday, the  overnight workers at the bakery saw smoke at the rear of a restaurant, the Green Dragon, which is at the west end of the six-store strip mall. They called 911, and even as first responders arrived, about a minute later, Steinberg and other witnesses said, the fire quickly spread.

De Stefano, who said that she'd been awakened by the fire engines' lights and sirens, was one of those witnesses. 

"You see one big burst of fire," she said, "and then another one, and another one"

Steinberg, the bake shop owner, said that, despite the devastation, people from throughout the community had been reaching out. 

"I have such an influx on my phone," he said, describing messages and calls he'd received since the early morning hours of Friday. "'What can I do?'" he said that people were asking him. "'How can I help?' 'If you need anything, let me know,'" he said that he'd been repeatedly asked by friends and other customers. 

He also said that while he's optimistic that his business as well as those of his neighbors can reopen, a definitive time for that is elusive. 

"I'm sorry that I don't have an answer," Steinberg said. "We're just going to try and get up and running, somewhere, some way, somehow."

One of his regular customers is Josh Gottheimer, the local member of Congress. He stopped by the fire scene early on Friday afternoon, and said that after the businesses deal with their insurance companies, he and his office will do all they can to help the businesses relocate. 

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.