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Breaking News

Fire Damages New Jersey Church

Aired January 08, 2002 - 13:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The pictures we have been watching here in addition to the Pentagon briefing here are pictures we are getting in from our affiliate, WABC, of a fire that is, as you can see, fully engaged.

We are looking here at a church, a rather large one, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, that is on fire and looks to be almost totally now engulfed in flames. We have no idea exactly how many units have been called to answer this fire. This is in Ridgewood, New Jersey, which is as we understand it in the northeastern part of the state of New Jersey, perhaps the extreme northeastern portion of the state across the Hudson River from Yonkers, New York. And as you can see, that fire is fully underway. We understand -- five alarms I'm being told now. This was a five-alarm fire. And it looks as though there is going to be extensive damage to this building.

And as you can see here, these flames have been burning for some time, perhaps as much as an hour and a half, we are hearing now. We also understand this church has a nursery school as well. No word on whether or not anyone is inside or is believed to be trapped inside here. We will continue to try to comb whatever information we can on this fire. As you can see, this is a huge fire, perhaps even bigger than the one that we covered just a couple of weeks ago in New York City, that fire of a St. John the Divine there, that church that really was a very symbolic structure in New York City that burned down just recently. This was very reminiscent of that, but it looks as though there are no people involved in this one either.

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