Fire at The Rockleigh
There was a large response from surrounding towns for a fire Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022 at The Rockleigh reception hall in Rockleigh.
Nicholas Katzban, NorthJersey.com
ROCKLEIGH ― The Rockleigh wedding and banquet hall is scrambling to repair damage from a multi-alarm fire that began in its boiler room Thursday just before a wedding was set to take place inside.
In a post to Instagram the day after the blaze, management assured its customers it has teams working “around the clock” to restore the event space by the end of the weekend.
The post urged customers to contact their sales associates with questions and to not come to the venue, where a valet company was minding the gate as contractors flowed in and out with stacks of new dry wall and other materials.
In a selfie video posted to Instagram about an hour after the fire was reported to Northvale emergency services, a wedding’s event designer, Yomaris Moldonado, can be seen scrambling around the estate as the fire burns through one wing of the building, showing torrid flames bursting through the roof and plumes of black smoke surging into the air.
“I just hear a lot of glass breaking,” she says as she watches the building smolder and burn.
Earlier in the video, she says the room where the ceremony was to take place “smells like pure smoke,” and later weeps, “This is so scary.”
The Rockleigh stretches across palatial grounds on Paris Avenue at the border of Northvale. The two story building includes multiple wings featuring colonial entrances flanked by red brick set far back amid elaborate landscaping.
Reports of the fire were received by the neighboring borough at approximately 5:50 p.m., according to Northvale Police Chief Howard Ostrow.
The fire began in the venue’s boiler room, but quickly spread, filling the first and second floors with thick smoke, he said.
While crews extinguished the fire within 30 to 40 minutes, the planned ceremony was would be temporarily dashed for the bride and groom.
But, thankfully, all guests and employees were safely evacuated, Ostrow said on Thursday.
