That was not their first fire. It was my second fire and their third fire in Hoboken. I wasn't at the one in Madison Street, the one that happened during the day. It happened right before Easter. But until I saw for my self these news clippings and stuff, that's when I knew. I never knew about the gentrification until eight years ago.
Certain smells, anytime we go to hotels, we don't wanna be above the 3rd floor. I can never live in anything above, like, you know...it just the effects of that tragedy. Knowing that we were in a fire 1 year and the next year, both tragic fires. That changed, altered our lives. Neighbors dying, the people, friends that we were hanging out with dying.That you just played with them yesterday and they're gone.
How many times I called that police station in Hoboken, and they didn't wanna hear my mouth. I think I was probably 15, 16. Yo llamaba de cada semana, every 3 weeks I would call. You have anything yet for the Pinter Hotel fire? Who did that? Nothing. The case is closed.
Marisol Zenon | Family member of deceased, The Pinter Hotel Fire
The old Hoboken. It was so neighborly. Everybody said hi to everybody. We knew everybody. It was a large Hispanic community. Sometimes well, most of the time, I'll go to church on Willow because they give the Spanish Mass. The older ladies that are there, I know them well. My mom knows them well. And I feel that small community because that's all there is. I think they're all gone.
Nilda “Chicky” Figueroa | Witness, The Pinter Hotel Fire
We had no choice. We were affected by the fire. We didn't choose, but we can choose to keep going. We can choose to make a difference. We can choose not to let the decision of one miserable piece of shit make us ugly like that. I will always try to put my best foot forward no matter what I've gone through in life.
So it's one of those things where you have to constantly check-in and say, was I worthy to jump out that window? You know, if he had to save 10 people, should I have been one of 10 or should that beautiful family next to me been the group that lived.
Robert Burzichelli | Survivor, 1202 Washington Street Fire
The hard part of that is they told me they, I have to go to the morgue to identify them. And then, it was sad part because they got I remember, it was 14 altogether. My family of 6.
Arsenio Vega | Survivor, 1202 Washington Street Fire
The building was equipped with a pull station. They didn't even function because I pulled it myself and it didn't even go off. I fractured my leg, burned my back, my arm still got the scar in my arm, still got some scars in my probably my back and I got in my arm like the light shade. Used a lot of cocoa butter as a kid to try to, you know, for the marks to go away.
You don't want to be disrespectful. You don't wanna take advantage of people, but you do have to document something horrible happened here, and this needs to be seen.
Bill Bayer | Photographer of The Fires for The Dispatch
Ultimately, where I landed was what matters for this little kid who doesn't even exist yet, he should know the stories of the people in his family. He should know ancestors' stories. So even if he has one Puerto Rican grandparent, well that matters. His abuelo matters, and that dude's story matters.
The day before the fire, a real estate woman approached me. She was on the same side of the block, but across the street from me. She came and she said to me, you are all going to have to leave this apartment, and I asked why? And she never gave me a reason. So the next day after the real estate agent approached me, the fire occurred.
The fire started during the night. The child survived because her mother protected her with her body and died. The child had burns over a large proportion of her body. I don't remember the exact proportion. I don't remember their names. I don't think Namibia remembers either. It was, you know, she was quite young, and she was just learning English. That was, at the height of the arson for profit. And those people were burning children alive to make money.
I looked out the window, the sun was bothering me and I said Oh! What happened to The Pinter Hotel? They said it burned last night and they started telling me the story of, how my friend's wife was hanging out the window 9 months pregnant. Kids died. My boys 2 kids died. Friends of mine died in there. It was an overwhelming, tragedy, to the point that, soon after the building was demoed, there was a condo going up, you know, and all those memories of every area echo almost single handedly point to every area that burned.