An explosion occurred Tuesday night at a Hillside auto body shop which contained multiple cars, and started a fire that destroyed multiple other businesses in the area, according to the township’s mayor.

“We had a wall collapse and apparently the entire shopping section of Maple Avenue from Conklin and Winans Avenue has been destroyed,” Hillside Mayor Dahlia Vertreese said in a video posted on her Facebook page .

Vertreese said the stores include a bodega and a flower shop.

“It’s a harrowing sight,” she said.

The mayor said there were no reported fatalities, but a few families were displaced.

The fire was still burning as of 9 p.m. Tuesday, and Vertreese said she expected emergency operations to continue until Wednesday morning.

She was told by the local fire chief that this was

See Full Page