A 1902 bank sat empty for nearly 14 years on a redevelopment corridor. Eyewitnesses watched people trapped inside. Three fires have struck Monticello Avenue since late 2024.
A bank building on Monticello Avenue sat vacant for nearly 14 years before it caught fire Friday morning. Two people were inside. Eyewitnesses helped rescuers work to get them out. Both suffered severe burns, and a firefighter got hurt too.
The fire broke out at 9 a.m. on June 19, 2026, at the corner of Monticello Avenue and Brinkerhoff Street. The building opened in 1902 as the Bergen and Lafayette Bank Branch and later housed a Capital One branch that closed in fall 2012. Under city ordinance, a building vacant longer than six months counts as a fire hazard and unsafe. The bank had been empty for nearly 14 years.
A person that News 12 New Jersey identified as "Jimmy" and his friend watched from the sidewalk. Jimmy told News 12 he saw smoke and that he and a friend called 911.
"Seen smoke, call the police, a guy trapped inside. Me and a friend helped him open the gate. The other one was trapped inside. He had to cut the locks, yeah it wasn't good man, I never seen nothing like that before."
No one knows whether the building was secured before the fire. Jersey City's ordinance requires owners to register vacant properties, post a contact sign and keep the building locked. The city has had statutory tools to address vacant properties since 2011. No record shows this building ever drew citations or acquisition filings. On April 25, 2026, a SeeClickFix report listed 106 Monticello Avenue as a "Vacant Building/Lot" with status "Open."
Monticello Realty, LLC owns the building. Records show the property last sold on June 8, 2020, for $900,000, with annual taxes of $19,062. No available records show code violations or ordinance citations against the property.
The bank fire was not the first on the street. In November 2024, several blocks north, roughly half a mile away, a fire at 274 Monticello Avenue displaced more than 30 residents and injured three people. That building had 17 fire safety violations. The Hudson County Regional Arson Task Force investigated. Duct tape covered a doorbell camera.
In May 2026, firefighters rescued seven people, including children, from a three-story home in the 200 block of Monticello Avenue. One resident suffered smoke inhalation; two refused treatment. The fire displaced twenty-four residents.
Now the bank. Two civilians severely burned. One firefighter with non-life-threatening injuries. Investigators have not determined the cause.
Monticello Avenue is not a forgotten corridor. A $30 million mixed-use project broke ground nearby in 2009. The Monticello Avenue Main Street Program, sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, is the only Main Street USA designation in Hudson County.
Yet a more-than-120-year-old bank building sat empty through all of it.
The fire prevention apparatus broke down no later than December 2024. Bill O'Dea, then a Hudson County Commissioner representing western Jersey City, published an op-ed exposing the collapse.
The op-ed laid out the numbers. In 2023, the municipal court docketed 702 fire code matters. Only 30 percent of those cases ended with paid penalties. 167 cases from 2021 and 2022 awaited prosecution. Another 172 sat in the queue from earlier years. By the time the November 2024 fire broke out at 274 Monticello Avenue, hundreds of violations already sat in the backlog.
The Fire Prevention Unit employed two full-time inspectors for a city of more than 300,000 people. O'Dea wrote that the state demands 70 percent annual building inspection coverage. The unit "doesn't make it anywhere near this number," O'Dea wrote. The state was "looking to take over" the unit. The unit historically generated about $2 million annually. Revenue cleared the bar. Inspections never did.
James Solomon became mayor in January 2026. His campaign website promised to "keep our Fire Department strong and independent" and preserve its Class 1 insurance rating, which places it in the top 1 percent nationally. The pledge centered on suppression: response time, equipment, ratings. It did not address fire prevention staffing levels or the documented inspection backlog.
The bank fire broke out less than six months into Solomon's administration. The vacancy and enforcement gaps predate his tenure by more than a decade.
Stephan Drennan has been Fire Chief since April 2023. The city permanently swore him in June 2024. He is a 42-year veteran, a third-generation firefighter, one of 17 family members in the department. He was a 9/11 first responder. At his swearing-in, he said the department needs "constant support from the council and mayor." He said it had been over 30 years since Jersey City had a training facility. He praised the department's ISO rating.
The fire chief Solomon inherited has not publicly addressed the Fire Prevention Unit staffing crisis since taking office.
On April 29, 2026—seven weeks before the bank fire—the city posted a job opening for a new Housing Preservation Director. The incumbent was transitioning out. The division oversees vacant property registration and enforcement.
Hudson County Prosecutor Wayne Mello has not issued a statement on the Monticello Avenue bank fire. He succeeded Esther Suarez on August 1, 2025. The absence may indicate investigators do not suspect arson. No one has confirmed whether the task force deployed to this scene.
Whether squatters were present is unknown, as is whether the building was on the city's vacant property registry.
What is known: a more-than-120-year-old bank building sat empty for nearly 14 years on a city-promoted redevelopment corridor. People were inside when it caught fire. Records show the fire prevention unit critically understaffed for at least 18 months. The city had statutory tools to address vacant properties. No record shows this building ever drew citations or acquisition filings.
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Sources
• ABC 7 NY, "7 people, including children, rescued from Jersey City fire," May 12, 2026
• ABC 7 NY, "Hudson County Regional Arson Task Force investigating Jersey City fire," November 21, 2024
• CBS News New York, "2 injured in Jersey City bank fire," June 19, 2026
• Hudson County View, "Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez announces retirement," August 1, 2025
• Hudson County View, "Jersey City posts job opening for Housing Preservation Director," April 29, 2026
• Hudson County View, "Jersey City swears in Stephan Drennan as permanent fire chief," June 18, 2024
• Hudson County View, "Solomon announces transition committees," January 7, 2026
• Insider NJ, "Wayne Mello appointed Acting Hudson County Prosecutor," July 31, 2025
• JCityTimes, "Jersey City firefighters union endorses Bill O'Dea for mayor," October 24, 2025
• Jersey City official website, "Ordinance 14.045: Vacant and Abandoned Properties"
• Jersey City Open Data / NJParcels, property record for 106-108 Monticello Avenue, accessed June 2026
• Multi-Housing News, "The Monticello breaks ground on Monticello Avenue," March 6, 2009
• News 12 New Jersey, "2 severely burned in Jersey City bank fire," June 19, 2026
• NJ.com, "7 rescued, 1 injured in Jersey City house fire," May 12, 2026
• NJ.com, "Bill O'Dea op-ed: Jersey City Fire Prevention Unit in crisis," December 2024
• NJ.com, "Capital One closing Monticello Avenue branch," August 2012
• NJ League of Municipalities, "Fire Inspector Licensure Requirements: P.L. 2025, c.19," February 2025
• Patch Jersey City, "2 severely burned, firefighter hurt in Jersey City bank fire," June 19, 2026
• SeeClickFix, "Vacant Building/Lot — 106 Monticello Avenue," April 25, 2026
• Solomon for Jersey City campaign website, "Public Safety Policy," 2025
• U.S. Census Bureau, "Population Estimates Program, July 1, 2024"
• Yahoo News, "2 injured in Jersey City bank fire," June 19, 2026