Broadway Spa Sustained Extensive Damage in Fire [Video]

The acrid smell of smoke from Friday's fire still hung in the air Saturday evening outside 24-20 Broadway, an imposing mixed-use building that once housed a ShopRite and now contains a spa and adult medical day care center.

The smoky blaze, which firefighters fought for most of the afternoon and early evening Friday, caused extensive damage to the building's basement and first floor, Fire Chief Jeff Greco said.

"This was a stubborn fire," he said. "It was in the walls and in the floor and it was difficult to get at. That's why it took a long time to actually put it out."

The fire started in the basement ceiling and spread horizontally through the large voids between the basement ceiling and first floor that were left when the building was converted from a supermarket, Greco said.

About 60 people, including many elderly day care center guests, were evacuated at the sight of smoke, NorthJersey.com reported. None suffered injuries.

Because the flames didn't show themselves until two or three hours into the fire, firefighters were forced to cut holes in walls and the floor to look for pockets of fire to extinguish, Greco said.

The first-floor spa offices and the basement spa area, which contains saunas, a pool, some storage and a refrigeration unit, suffered the brunt of the damage, while the adult day care center portion escaped unscathed, he said.

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Watch the video for a walkthrough of the damage suffered in the first floor office portion of the building.

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Peter Bekkerman, who owns both the BRC Spa and Sauna Resort in the basement and the Broadway Adult Medical Day Care Center on the first floor, said he was hoping to reopen the facilities in a few months.

He owns another adult medical day care center in East Brunswick, where Greco said he thought some of Bekkerman's Fair Lawn patients may be transferred temporarily.

As of late Saturday afternoon, the Broadway complex was still without electricity, pending an inspection from the building department.

The fire, whose cause has yet to be determined, is not considered suspicious.

In addition to Fair Lawn's four companies, firefighters from Elmwood Park, Saddle Brook, Paramus, Wyckoff, Maywood, Glen Rock, Hawthorne, Rochelle Park, Hackensack, Ridgewood and Teaneck provided assistance at the scene.

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