Fair Lawn firefighters rolled up on a strip mall early Friday to find fire coming from the kitchen area of the Green Dragon restaurant.
Then, the flames took off.
It spread throughout the strip mall that houses over restaurants, a barber shop, a deli and dry cleaners.
“We initially sent in an engine crew through the rear of the building to try to get a handle on it. Unfortunately, the fire quickly spread, compromising the roof. In the interest of safety, we opted to fight the fire from the exterior using aerial ladders,” Fair Lawn Assistant Fire Chief Ralph Rinaldo told nj.com.
The roof collapsed a short time later.
He said it took crews about 90 minutes to get the fire under control.
A witness described: "Like one-by-one. First, the barbershop. Then, Roadhouse the restaurant. Then Zadie's the bakery. It was kind of a progression of it getting worse and worse."
A well-known Jewish bakery, Zadies Kosher Bake Shop, sustained heavy damage.
"All our recipes are inside. They are all handwritten. They're four generations old, all on a piece of paper," the owner said. "On Friday, shabbas, we're a kosher bakery. There will be a lot of people here trying to get their stuff. I can't even contact all of the people who have orders for today."
The cause is under investigation.
Firefighters were still working at the scene at dawn.
