A basement fire caused heavy damage to the Berkeley Square Apartments at 156 Wayne Ave in Suffern on a Tuesday night. The fire began around 6:45 p.m. in the basement of a two-story building and was extinguished within 20 minutes, according to Suffern Fire Chief Michael Starks — though not before flames reached the attic and damaged the basement and first floor. There were no injuries.
More than 60 firefighters battled the blaze, including crews from Suffern, Tallman, Hillcrest, Monsey, and Spring Valley. Wayne Avenue was closed for about three hours. The building, which contained 16 apartments and was one of several similar buildings in the complex, was left uninhabitable. Firefighters were called back to the scene overnight when the flames rekindled; the fire was out again by 6 a.m.
The investigation was ongoing, led by the Rockland County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations and Suffern Police. A nearly identical fire had burned through another building in the same complex about a year earlier.